BMW have finally taken the wraps off its entry-level BMW 310 R naked bike, just days before the EICMA show in Milan, Italy. But I’m not sure if this is the best beginner roadster, or just the best beginner roadster that happens to be from Germany.
The BMW 310 R is the first of a new range of motorcycles designed to increase the German brand’s global market share (while also getting people from more developed countries with less dollars and less experience into the brand). They want to sell 200,000 bikes worldwide by 2020, nearly double what they’re pulling now.
The bike is powered by a 313 cc single cylinder, liquid cooled motor which has a double overhead camshaft design and uses electronic fuel injection. BMW have reversed the cylinder head, which moves the inlet tract to the front of the motor and the exhaust at the rear.
Power is a claimed 34 horsepower at 9,500 rpm and 20.6 foot-pounds of torque at 7,500 rpm. Dry weight comes in at 350 pounds. It also gets an inverted fork, ABS as standard, and a four piston brake caliper (front I’m assuming).
The 310 R is the first from BMW’s new partnership with the Indian brand TVS. BMW’s well aware that producing the bikes out of India instead of Germany means they could have some hurdles to overcome perception wise, because people can’t seem to understand why the country of origin does not immediately determine the quality.
To combat this, BMW claim the bikes were designed and developed 100 percent in Germany, and that they spent a ton of effort setting up the production facilities in Bangalore. All of the machinery used to manufacture the bikes was built in Germany and shipped to india, and the workforce building the bikes were all given special training. The engine assembly line is actually built behind a glassed off area with airlocks at the entrances, to prevent any dirt from getting into the area. Seriously.
The real question is: will this thing actually be able to pull sales away from the other options in this category It has specs nearly identical to the Honda CB300F, but will likely come with a price tag more in line with the KTM Duke 390, which makes almost 10 more horsepower and is 45 pounds lighter. We expect full details at EICMA.
How much are you willing to pay for that little white and blue circle?
Photos: BMW
Contact the author at sean.macdonald@jalopnik.com. Follow Lanesplitter on Facebook and Twitter.