BMW’s mini-superbike pictured during road-going tests

These are the first pictures of the prototype TVS Apache 300/BMW S300RR being tested on the road – and the shots give some idea about how the bike’s headlights, bars and mirrors will look in its final production form.

The mini-superbike is based around the G310R naked, which was launched last year, and is the first team-up between Indian company TVS and BMW. Both firms are going to release their own version.

This bike pictured has already been confirmed as being released by TVS in India and other markets as part of its 2017 line-up, and it will be sold under the name Apache 300.

A track-trim version named Akula – a word for shark and a type of submarine – has already been spotted dowsed in heaps of carbon fibre. For the road-going Apache the spec is more road-friendly (less carbon and no track exhaust) and the bike now gets flatter bars and LED headlights which sit above the air intakes on either side of the bike’s nose.

In much broader terms, what’s actually seen here is a very early version of the bike that will go on to become the BMW S300RR. BMW is going to release this smaller version of its iconic superbike at a later date (there are some rumours that this could even appear as part of the German company’s 2017 line-up also) and is letting the TVS get the first stages of development on the road out of the way at the moment.

These pictures, bagged by the team at DriveSpark, show the bike on the road near Bangalore in India.