Back in June 2023, I reported my initial impressions of a recently purchased (back then) urban commuter motorcycle – BMW’s G 310 R. Overall I was happy with the bike, however, I did have a gripe with the gearing at highway speeds, which I endeavoured to rectify along with a few other personal touches. Fast forward to the present time, and I have now personalised the bike to suit my requirements.
First up was to tackle the gearing issue, and for that, I turned to ETG Logistics, who are the importers of the TVS Motorcycles brand in South Africa. TVS manufacture the G 310 R in India and they have a very similar bike that runs the same engine called the Apache RR 310, which is geared slightly differently to the G 310 R. The Apache RR 310 runs a 17T front sprocket, whereas the G 310 R runs a 16T. So after much consideration, I ordered the 17T sprocket from ETG Logistics which was very affordable and then fitted it to my bike (the fitment was very simple, taking about 20 mins only).
Did it solve the gripe that I had? Yes, it did! Now when riding on the highway at 120km/h, the bike feels more relaxed, revving at approx 7000rpm, whereas before doing the conversion, it revved at approx 8000rpm at the same speed. In no way has it affected the low-down torque, in fact, the overall riding experience has improved massively, as now you don’t need to short-shift so quickly through the lower gears, making it such a sweet bike to ride both in and around town and also now on the highways.
Back in December, I took a trip to Sabie and found the long-haul highway ride to and from Johannesburg a doddle, the bike would sit happily at 130km/h, like it was running at its revving sweet spot. Not only that, there’s a lot to be said about riding a small cc motorcycle around the twisty roads of Mpumalanga—certainly a lot of fun to be had.
Next up, and to finish fine-tuning my bike, was to fit a performance exhaust, and for that, I turned to the locally made brand Vykon Exhausts.
Vykon Exhausts is the brainchild of Brad Annasis (from the famous Annasis Racing team), born from the legacy of his late father Gerry Anassis, a top South African Drag racer from the ’70s, whose exhaust manufacturing company Air Age stood the test of time and remained in operation for 54 years. The ethos of Vykon Exhausts is to bring the most modern design technology of today, yet keep the pure fundamentals of the Gerry Anassis old-school basics.
Vykon currently has an array of different styled exhausts, varying in length and size, so depending on budget and design preference, Vykon has you covered.
I opted for their OG sports exhaust named – Vykon, as I liked how the design suits the overall style of the sporty G 310 R, the lines flow seamlessly and are in parallel with the sharp angles of the bike, and the longer size fits the proportions of the bike superbly—it looks top-notch too! Not only that, the Vykon is so much lighter than the standard exhaust, you can literally feel the difference when you hold both together, the standard exhaust weighs a ton in comparison.
Another nice product from Vykon Exhausts is their range of DB Killers, depending on how loud/quiet an exhaust note you are looking for, they can set up your exhaust note accordingly depending on your preferences. For me, I was not looking for an obnoxiously loud exhaust sound, so I opted for their ‘mushroom’ designed DB Killer which has a perforated cone design that helps to reduce the loudness, this gave me the sound that I was looking for—a nice grunty rubble without needing to wear earplugs when riding in the higher rev range.
Being locally manufactured, the pricing is also very attractive, when compared to imported brands such as Akrapovič. In summary, Vykon Exhausts offers a high-quality product with personalised customer service and at a very good price. To me, it is an excellent value proposition for anyone who’s looking to upgrade their standard exhaust.
Overall, I am thrilled with my Vykon Exhaust, it gives the bike the sound that it deserves (without any of the Euro-5 compliance restrictions) and gives it the extra oomph that I was looking for, it’s ‘definitely’ much peppier than in its standard format.
So if you own a G 310 R or G 310 GS, I would recommend the upgrades I have done to my bike as they do improve the overall riding experience…
For more information give the guys at Vykon a call: www.vykon.co.za
