Hello and welcome to Episode 175 of Front End Chatter, Britain’s funkiest motorcycling podcast, presented by Simon Hargreaves and Martin Fitz-Gibbons, supported as ever by Bennetts, the bike insurance specialists, and BikeSocial.co.uk, the best place to get your motorcycling news and other two-wheeled resources.

And on FEC175 we have:

• Simon becomes one of a handful of humans to ride both Suzuki’s V-Strom 800DE and Honda’s Transalp at their respective launches – find out what he thinks and which one might suit you

• KTM and MV Agusta re-organise their dealers (which only matters to the half of the podcast who owns an MV Agusta)

• Irish road racing is back on after securing £90,000 from crowdfunding and a renegotiation of their insurance premium, which is good news – although is this now going to be an annual issue?

• the first two races from World Superbike at Phillip Island and Mandalika

• plus more of our emails, including:

            - the when and where of throttle snatch

            - why can’t I go round right handers?

            - how come Sikhs don’t have to wear helmets?

            - recalibrating quickshifters – urban myth or actual thing?

            - why does my bum ache?

...and much more...

Thank you very much for listening, and please send your thoughts, queries and random comedy motorcycling moments to

[email protected] @SimonHbikes

@Mufga