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I am wearing my full gear. It's hot. Everybody's wearing shorts and I am a bit jealous. But then I think for a bit and I realize I am actually the lucky one.
Security check. They tear out my helmet. They want to understand what's showing on the screens. Yes. I am in an airport with my full motorcycle gear on. I am flying to Croatia to pick up a bike from there and ride it back to Romania. I offered to help a fellow biker who had a small incident.
It was the F310GS, which I was keen on testing. I was considering of buying one to have a second bike for riding around the city and the bit of off-road that I occasionally like to try. Incidentally I came to ride it for 1000 km on highways and bumpy roads, in daylight as well as during the night and what I am going to report below is the opinion of an amateur rider – I am not a professional tester and I have only ridden only two bikes so far, both F650GSs, the newer twin I own for now and its predecessor the big bore single-cylinder.
The F310GS:
Being a small-single-cylinder bike it is light and easy to handle but the starved pony will vibrate a lot and lack torque at low revs, therefore you will choose to stay in high revs.
It is high. I am 160 cm tall and although I have a few years of riding experience, it took me a bit of time to get used to the height, as it is higher than my 650 (83 cm vs 78 cm current seat height) and I could only touch the ground with one toe at a time. Therefore I honestly don't know how many beginner ladies will be able to ride it as a first bike. If they are not taller or heavier than myself, it will be challenging. We all have been in that point, where as beginners we wanted to have the confidence brought by touching the ground with both feet at standstill, but maybe taller persons won't have that problem.
As I said before, it vibrates over 5000 revs and therefore almost all the time. And as much as I enjoy vibrations, having a bike vibrating for hours is not something to wish for. And I don't think you do either. You start losing sensing of your left hand and that because, yes, it vibrates more on the left side handle, at least this bike did. And due to this, the left mirror is only half trust-able, I have been taken by surprise by cars that over-passed me because they were not visible in the shaking mirror. And with this bike, there will be quite a few cars that will overpass you.
It is indeed lightweight and that is useful in the city and off road, but out there, on trips over mountains and cliffs, where the wind blows a bit harsher, you will be wishing to be riding a heavier horse breed. During this trip I was pushed on the other part of the road by the wind without being able to stop it, like I was riding on a slippery surface. I was lucky there was no car coming. Fricking scary!
The bike has a short windscreen, as all factory GS’s do, that surprisingly seems to do its' job very well, I was not bothered by the front wind at all. Or it might be that I was not going too fast.
The display is fairly simple, showing basic info like gear, speed, revs, fuel level and clock, taking into consideration that this is a low budget motorcycle and it has not been equipped with the multi-gadget controls and the more -than- useful information BMW has gotten us used to. The indicator for the turn signals is just a mere smudge on the display and is barely visible in plain daylight. On the handlebar you can find only the main controls, no other fancy knobs or levers, so no need for half day training to understand what everything does. The headlight was the feature I liked the most as it made riding at night enjoyable.
The seating position is neutral and comfortable. Only when I stood up I found the handlebars too low for comfortable riding but this should be easily adjustable with aftermarket risers.
All in one, for me it is neither an alternative nor a complementary bike. In the city it lacks the torque that I am looking for in order to entering fast in intersections and, for longer trips, I found it tiring, it can't support barely any extra weight and it is slow. For off-road, the ground clearance is good, suspension working fine, but when taking everything into consideration, there are better options out there for me.
To make up your own mind, I suppose the best way would be to rent one and have your fun with it. It is the kind of entertainment you best pay by the hour. And I know just the place.
