Front End Chatter

Hello and welcome to Front End Chatter, and episode 132 of the long funning ramily drama in which ranty old seadog Simon Hargreaves (played by Oliver Reed, in his final screen role), rattling around alone in the east wing of Chatter Manors, is faced with moral bankruptcy and can only be saved by the intervention of the saintly Martin Fitz-Gibbons (played by Peter O'Toole in his final screen role). Together they form an unlikely alliance with Bennetts, the bike insurance specialists (played by Alan Bennett, in his final screen role) and www.bikesocial.co.uk, the world of biking on the web (played by Meryl Strepsil, in her final screen role).

And there are some motorbikes in all this, in case you're new round here.

And in this episode, Simon and Martin chatter about:

• a new Suzuki Hayabusa they know nothing about, but which you, by now, do – was we right or was we right?
• Triumph's new and rather impressively spec'd Speed Trip
• KTM's updated but also impressive 1290 Super Adventure with rude tyres
• Are BMW really not going to bike shows any more?

And in the FEC sack, we have topics as varied as:

• how to secure your helmet to your bike when going walkabout
• how to ride over potholes and bumps (at speed)
• what do electric bikes have to achieve to find widespread acceptance?
• what makes a bike exceed expectations?
• what's the Five Nations Tour?
• when is a Vyrus not a virus?

...and much, much more...

Thank you for downloading and listening, and sending your thoughts, ideas and questions to:

[email protected]

And thanks to Bennetts and BikeSocial for continued support!

Get Simon and Martin on the socials at:

@SimonHbikes

@Mufga

Hello and welcome to Front End Chatter E131, Britain's favourite and longest serving motorcycling podcast, possibly either or, who's counting? What's for sure is we're indebted and abetted by Bennetts, the bike insurance specialists, and www.bikesocial.co.uk, the marvellous motorcycling website.

And on FEC this week, Simon and Martin chatter about:

• Triumph's new Speed Triple 1200 RS – how big will it be really, is it bored and/or stroked, and will Triumph go after hyper-naked revs and power, or keep the Speed Trip a raunchy but slightly more useful super-naked?
• when is a spy shot not a spy shot?
• guesswork around Aprilia's new RSV4 and Tuono, for whom the passenger has always been a "barely tolerated guest" according to Aprilia – and wouldn't it be nice if they made a CapoNord V4?

We also dive in the FEC sack and ponder delights such as:

• when is it too cold to get your pegs down and why motorcycling shouldn't be a faith-based activity
• where should we put our feet when we're riding?
• how racing isn't necessarily a mandatory next step on from track days
• what's the adventure bike equivalent of a ZZR1400 for £6-£7k?
• and much, much more! A bit.

Thank you very much for listening, thanks to Bennetts and www.bikesocial.co.uk for putting up with us, and please keep your thoughts, musings, queries and fact correcting coming to:

[email protected]

Catch us on the Instas and Twitters:

@SimonHbikes

@Mufga

Hello and welcome to Front End Chatter E130, and the first FEC of 2021; a brand new year, and hopefully things will get better – but some things stay the same and there's not much chance of FEC improving any time soon.

Thanks as always to Bennetts, the bike insurance specialists, and www.bikesocial.co.uk, home of all that's good and virtuous in motorcycling.

And on FEC this week, Simon and Martin chatter about:

• Davide Brivio's shock exit from Suzuki MotoGP team boss to F1... and who we'd choose to replace him
• John McPint MBE has won an MBE from the Queenie, but who else has and who hasn't?
• when motorcycle manufacturers get market research wrong
• hello to Aprilia's new Tuono 660...
• ...and goodbye; we mourn the passing of true racing and engineering pioneer, Peter Williams

We also dive in the FEC sack and answer some timeless wonderings:

• what was that about preload and ride height again?
• winter hacks – it's a love/hate thing
• magazines are for old riders; YouTube is for young 'uns: discuss
• are the Isle Of Wight Diamond Races going to happen in 2021?
• all this and much more!

Thank you very much for listening, thanks to Bennetts and www.bikesocial.co.uk for putting up with us, and please keep your thoughts, musings, queries and fact correcting coming to:

[email protected]

Catch us on the Instas and Twitters:

@SimonHbikes (but to be honest it's more paracord hobbies and current affairs than bikes; I like to think it's context)

@Mufga (he's funnier than me)

Hello and welcome to a very special mini-episode of Front End Chatter, sponsored by Bennetts and www.bikesocial.co.uk – and it's the one where Simon and Martin, literally a quartet of spods in underpants, get to have a 10-minute chat with none other than the 2020 MotoGP World Champion, Suzuki's Joan Mir. It's short and sweet, a bit like Mr Mir himself.

Hello and welcome a fully festive, technically flawed, partially visual (which makes no sense to listeners in black and white) but otherwise entirely oral episode 129 of Front End Chatter, Britain's favourite motorcycling podcast helmed by Simon Hargreaves and Martin Fitz-Gibbons and kept afloat by the oceanic Bennetts, the bike insurance specialists, and www.bikesocial.co.uk, all your two-wheeled needs digitally delivered via fibre optics (get well soon John!)

And this week on FEC we have:

• good news for Norton donors
• good news for scooter and moped manufacturers
• how the Covid pandemic has affected bike sales and how far and often we ride, and how it's given us renewed motivation to do the things in 2021 we've always put off doing
• our favourite bikes of the year, and biggest disappointments
• what we're looking forward to riding in 2021
• plus! Do you want an MV Agusta Turismo Veloce, or would a Tracer GT do the same thing? Or even a Z1000SX?
• would a Guzzi V85TT suit a novice off-road rider?
• is the NC500 really worth it?
• what's Britain's most picturesque motorway?
• is the 1998 Kawasaki ZX-9R C1 the most underrated sports tourer ever?

...and much much more.

Thanks again to Bennetts and BikeSocial, thanks to you for listening to us, supporting us and sending in your thoughts, queries, ponderings and questions to:

[email protected]

...and we hope you manage to have a great Christmas. See you in the New Year!

Ladies and gentlemens, pray welcome to Front End Chatter E128. Inside you'll discover presentation by the ineffable Mr Simon Hargreaves and the inestimable Mr Martin Fitz-Gibbons, plus their delightfully delictatious Mr Ben Nets, the bike insurance specialist, and wwwbikesocial.co.uk, the world of motorcycling on the webbage.

And in this episode of FEC we have:

• Mufga's riding impressions of the new Aprilia RS660 (closes eyes, makes brum brum noises)
• and SiH's riding impressions of the new Ducati Multistrada V4 (closes eyes, makes brum brum noises), in case anyone hadn't been watching Bennetts YouTube channel, reading the website or picking up just about every UK bike magazine and newspaper in the last few weeks
• Marc Marquez going for third time lucky for arm operations, while FEC will henceforth be acting as medical advisor for DORNA on the grounds we have a better handle on what constitutes fitness to ride than they do
• why we shouldn't dismiss Long Way Up with such offhand flippancy
• why do we measure bike tank size in litres and fuel consumption in mpg?
• how to – but really, why – pull a wheelie
• what should a rider do with their helmet when dismounting and walking about?
• what's the best electric bike out there, and why?
• why oe tyres might not be perfectly not great, but it's not the tyre manufacturer's fault, it's the bike manufacturer we should blame

Thanks to Bennetts and BikeSocial for their indulgence and please download FEC from www.bikesocial.co.uk if you can.

Thank YOU massively for indulging our nonsense, and please continue to populate the FEC sack with your thoughts, ideas, questions and nonsense of your own – write to [email protected] You can catch us on the socials here: @SimonHbikes

@Mufga

One more before Xmas! Yay! A Yuletide FEC.

Hello and welcome to Front End Chatter Episode 127, the slightly behind the curve episode, with Martin Fitz-Gibbons and Simon Hargreaves waffling along as usual – supported and enhanced by Bennetts, the bike insurance specialists, and www.bikesocial.co.uk, the home of all things two-wheeled and powered by an engine, internally combustible or electric or, indeed, propelled by little more than an inappropriate fragrant emission.

And on the show this week we have:

• a new MotoGP World Champeen, and a slightly subdued Portimao ending to the craziest, least predictable and – let's be honest – luckiest MotoGP season in modern history • the best Joan Mir stat you will ever hear
• new bikes for 2021, including:

– BMW's S1000R, the bike with the wrong half of the fairing removed

– Ducati's Multistrada V4 which Simon hadn't ridden, much, when the podcast came out, but which it subsequently turns out he had. It's very confusing

– Ducati's underrated SuperSport, now called a 950 – ...and the Panigale V4 SP, whatever that is

– Triumph 850 Sport, and how it replaces the world's shortest-lived model, the Triumph Tiger 900 – Yamaha MT-09 Tracer and GT

– Yamaha's track-only R6, and the death of the supersports 600

• PLUS! A brief dip into the FECsack and topics such as do track days matter when you're over 50, is a Z900 RS Café better than a Z H2, tyre scrubbers, how come more people don't commute on bikes, and much – a bit – more...

Many thanks to Bennetts and Bike Social for their continued patronage, and many thanks to you, dear listener, for lending us your ears... and please keep sending your thoughts, musings and life stories to us here:

[email protected]

You can get us on the Socials:

@SimonHbikes

@Mufga

Cheers ma dears.

Hello and welcome to Front End Chatter, Britain's most paracorded motorcycling podcast Fronted by Simon Hargreaves, Ended by Martin Fitz-Gibbons and Chattered by www.bikesocial.co.uk and Bennetts, the bike insurance specialists. And in E126 we have: • Yamaha's overhauled, uprated and enlarged (but not in the way you might have read) MT-09 • Martin's unnatural desire to buy a Piaggio MP3, as winter-hack path to an almost equally irrational Aprilia RS660 • the usual ramblings on MotoGP including where in the world is Marc Marquez, has he been moonlighting as his own brother, and what does this all mean for the 2020 title? • plus emails on topics as wide-ranging as more small acts of human kindness, the IOW Diamond Races (or not), ugly features on otherwise not ugly bikes, the difference between buying the first bike you look at and the bike you look at first, why under- (or over-) inflating a tyre for an extended stint on a motorway might not be a good idea, and the real reason you want to adjust your suspension. Thanks for letting us into your ears, hope the new lockdown and winter aren't too savage for you, and please email us your further thoughts, comments and/or questions to: [email protected] @SimonHbikes @Mufga

Hello and welcome for Front End Chatter, Britain's best biking podcast, and Episode 125 of the aforementioned, presented by him, Martin Fitz-Gibbons, and him, Simon Hargreaves. And we are, as ever, enabled and legitimised by Bennetts, the bike insurance specialists, and www.bikesocial.co.uk, the wonderful world of woking on the web.

And in this fun-sized Mars Bar of an episode we chatter about:

• how IAM observers are like twitchers
• what's the best 125 ever, why isn't it the Varadero, and are modern 125s better than classic 125s?
• how to topple off an Africa Twin and an F800GS in style
• how far can you go on a Zero SRF, and still get back in a day?
• wet MotoGP from Le Mans including an uncannily prescient Martin suggesting Covid could play a part in sideling riders THE DAY BEFORE a viral Rossi misses a couple of rounds
• loads of chat about Ducati's new V4 Granturismo motor powering the new Multistrada – how it's bigger, but smaller, lasts longer, makes more power but less torque, and where has the whole Desmo business gone? And why?
• a natter about details of Aprilia's RS660, as Martin from the past pays a visit to remind us his half of FEC worked all that stuff out a year ago. Apart from the price.
• all before we dive into the FEC sack with its usual barrage of good points, corrections and fab stories.

Please email us all your thoughts and questions to:

[email protected]

Thank you very much for listening, please spread the word, leave us a review on iTunes, and if it's not too late and you're in the US – VOTE!

@SimonHbikes

@Mufga

Hurrah for wet roads, diminishing daylight and dropping temperatures. We're so excited about the onset of winter. Excited, excited, excited. Apparently, a study of the moods of the Nordic peoples shows a successful strategy for coping with long periods of little sunshine – and Seasonal Affective Disorder – may be to simply develop a positive attitude toward it. Literally, repeating "I am excited about " has been shown to reduce anxiety.

So we're excited, excited and excited to invite you into Fronty End Prongs, episode 124, brought to you by Bennetts, the people who offer amazing discount deals and offers with bike insurance thrown in, and the world of motorcycling at www.bikesocial.co.uk. Please remember to wipe your feet on the way in and your bum on the way out.

And this week Simon and Mufga natter about:

• autumn – why?
• why Dumfries and Galloway is a good place to ride a bike
• why we don't review bikes any more
• BMW's new M1000RR and why it's failing to light Mufga's fire
• future Mufga pays us a visit down the time tunnel
• Triumph's Trident – what it is and how much it should cost
• high speed MotoGP review
• where, or not, to get up-to-date info on MotoGP engine use
• advice for your second track day
• is the current lack of spectators at race events sustainable, and if the racing has to change, how will it change?
• is buying a bike while under the influence a good idea?

...and much, much more.

Thanks for listening, and let's do this again in a fortnight.

Please send thoughts, questions and musings to:

[email protected]

Keep up with Simon and Mufga on the socials:

@SimonHbikes

@Mufga