BMW G310R Street Tracker by Wedge Motorcycles

A few months ago, this pocket-sized street tracker caught my attention on Facebook. It was based off the BMW G310R street bike platform, that much I could tell, but I couldn’t find anymore information on the machine.

A few more weeks of this lonesome photo sitting in my ‘to do” box, and it finally moved on to the place where all good stories go to die.

So, imagine my surprise when our friends at BMW Motorrad Japan sent me the following photos, which depict a new custom bike they commissioned from Takashi Nihira, at Tokyo’s Wedge Motorcycles.

It is the same bike I saw months earlier, but now we know who to thank for its creation, as well as a little bit more about its build. Its is quite impressive, for an unassuming “little” street tracker, don’t you think?

Nihira tell us the most difficult part about working with the BMW G310R is building around the engine, which has its exhaust headers pointing rearward, which push the engine mount closer to the front tire.

BMW does this for several reasons on the G310R, the most important of which is the weight balance. For Nihira though, it creates an interesting design challenge, as it means the headers must be more carefully routed, to keep the proportions right visually.

Keeping the G310R’s frame too was another challenge, as obviously the frame dictates quite a bit about how the machine is going to take shape. Seeing the radiator mounted to the side of the chassis, instead of tucked behind the front wheel, is an interesting choice that adds a sort of sporty feel to the machine.

Custom 19″ wheels are obligatory for a street tracker, of course. Directly mounted rotors stop the rolling action, with the help of the stock calipers and master cylinder. The high-mounted side exhaust is of note as well, which takes a circuitous route around the custom-made swingarm.

Where we find the BMW G310R to be a fairly bland motorcycle, the street tracker here from Wedge Motorcycles seems a lot more like something we would want to have in our garage.

Maybe BMW Motorrad should take note. After all, the G310 platform is said to give way to a bevy of different motorcycles. A street tracker model would compliment the recently released BMW G310GS adventure bike, right?