Hello and welcome to Front End Chatter episode 77! Courtesy of the alliterative, improvised, indigenous tribes behind Bike Social (that's www.bikesocial.co.uk) and spoken through the mouths of veteran motorcycle-journalists-slash-opinion-havers Simon Hargreaves and Martin Fitz-Gibbons, this near-two-hour extravaganza covers all the latest comings, goings, rumours and controversies across the motorised two-wheeled universe. Including, but not limited to:

 

• The Goodwood Festival of Speed: what it's like, what it isn't, who goes, who cares, who enjoyed their first taste of a Duke's private passage and who gets all bah humbug about it.
• BMW Motorrad Days at Garmisch: what it is, where it is, the bits we can talk about (and the bits we can't), plus the new bikes announced there (and the bikes that weren't).
• KTM's Adventure Rally in Wales: an orange dirtstravaganza which we didn’t actually go to, only we sort of did but were a day or two late. Plus some insights into the forthcoming 790 Adventure and its curious pendulous saddlebag petrol tanks.
• More new bike news and rumours, including whether Kawasaki have a new ZX-6R up their green sleeves, and what it might mean for the supersport class.
• What to wear in a heatwave: full leathers, mesh textiles or heated vests? No, really…
• MotoGP from Assen. Wow, etc.
• The questionably successful but unquestionably first episode of Can You Guess What Bike I Ride If I Give You Some Hints About Me And My Riding Background.
• Motorcycling must-haves, things to take touring and things to leave at home, old bikes with modern technology and much, much more…

 

Thank you once again for letting us into your ears, and thank you once again to www.bikesocial.co.uk – the place you should be going to download this podcast, and the place you should be going for all your online motorcycle needs (and, heck, why not get an insurance quote from Bennetts while you're there?)

Get in touch with Simon and Martin on the Twitters (@SimonHbikes and @Mufga disrespectively), or less socially by sending an email to [email protected] (literally anything).