Hello and welcome to Front End Chatter E154, and – please put your lips together and pipe us a tune – it's our 8th birthday! That means Simon has been making Front End Chatter for 14% of his life – and 20% of Mufga's.

Front End Chatter is proud, nay, positively tumescent to be sponsored and supported by Bennetts, the bike insurance specialists, and their multimedia wing, BikeSocial.co.uk. We implore, nay we beseech you to get your bike insurance with Bennetts – bike insurance run by motorcyclists, FOR motorcyclists, and putting more back into the industry than any other bike insurer, FACT. From BSB sponsorship to their YouTube channel with bike reviews and features and kit and gear tests, to the BikeSocial website with news, stories and tests – right through to BikeSocial Membership which gives you access to tons and tons of cool stuff such as: discounts at Sportsbikeshop, money off Yoshimura and Akrapovic exhausts, R&G stuff, Evotec stuff, a VIP weekend at the Nick Sanders Expedition Centre, and bargain track days exclusively for Bike Social members.

Anyway, before all that, a bumper episode of FEC including MotoGP testing from the disintegrating Mandalika circuit, rants about MotoGP Unlimited, surprising indifference to the news Wayne Rainey is riding at Goodwood Festival of Greed Speed, the new Yamaha Ténéré Wordle Raid, and a slew of lovely listener emails.

Keep 'em coming to [email protected]

And catch Simon and Martin on the socials at

@SimonHBikes @Mufga