A newly published design patent for BMW’s recently revealed G310 GS shows that the firm made last-minute changes to the bike’s appearance during its development.
Most importantly, the pictures reveal a completely different exhaust system. Where the production G310 GS has a conventional, low-level exhaust that’s very similar to the one on the G310 R that was first shown a year ago, the prototype uses a high-level exhaust.
It makes sense, given the bike’s off-road intentions, to raise the pipe – just as traditional scramblers have high-level side-mounted exhausts to make sure they’re not knocked by rocks. However, it seems that BMW ditched the idea late in the bike’s development.
Less easy to spot are the knock-on changes that the repositioned pipe led to. Notably, the pillion ’peg hangers have been reshaped, raising the pegs to clear the production bike’s low-level exhaust and adding an additional exhaust mount to the right-hand side.
