Front End Chatter

Hello and welcome to E113 and the second lock-down episode of Front End Chatter, the biking podcast that's been around for over 160 hours of guffage – none of yer opportunist 'Johnny-come-lately' podcasts, jumping on the Corona bandwagon because someone's bored, here. Oh no, Front End Chatter has been boring people for a lot longer than that.

Thanks as always to our amazing benefactors and supporters at the world's most comprehensive motorcycling website, bikesocial.co.uk, and Bennetts, the bike insurance experts.

On this week's episode we discuss:

• coping with life not riding motorbikes
• will there be any racing at all in 2020?
• does virtual racing offer any kind of substitute for the real thing?
• actual Andrea Iannone drugs ban news
• the joys of watching 1980s racing on YouTube

Plus the mighty FEC sack gets a battering, with topics such as:

• the pleasures of working your way up the biking ladder, then starting again from scratch...
• ... and is it therefore worth 'saving' getting your ultimate bike
• candidity (© Mufga) in the bike press
• is an airbag jacket really worth it, and can they save lives? Or better off spending the money on rider training?
• if bike theft trackers are fitted as standard by dealers, will that mean thieves will just get wise and work out how to disable them?
• the merits of Honda's VFR800 v Honda's 954 FireBlade, and why Honda's current VFR isn't as good as its predecessors
• what's a good modern sports tourer?
• ... and much much more...

Thanks for listening and we hope lockdown life is made slightly less intolerable by our ramblings. Please continue to populate the FEC sack with your musings, questions, stories and your Corona coping strategies. Email us at:

[email protected]

And catch us on the socials:

@SimonHbikes

@Mufga

Hello and welcome to very special, hopefully one-off, episode of Front End Chatter in which, as a result of current events, has been assembled from snippets of previous FECs and turned into a completely new podcast! No, truth is in keeping with government advice, FEC has self-isolated itself with Mufga calling in via Skype from the East Wing of Chatter Manors – yes, he's literally phoning it in. But even with the seriousness in the world, motorcycling carries on – well, not racing, but we can even talk about not racing. And apart from the obvious, we take a deep dive through the FEC sack and discuss your many and varied thoughts, questions, points of order and musings. Please keep them coming; the world might be changing but you can rely on FEC to keep chugging along. Email: [email protected] Thanks as ever to our long-time sponsors and friends at www.bikesocial.co.uk and Bennetts, the bike insurance specialists. Catch us on the socials @Mufga and @SimonHBikes

Hello and welcome to Front End Chatter E111, the Aaron Slight Episode of Britain's flavoured biking podcast, sponsored and supported as always by nos amis at www.bikesocial.co.uk and Bennetts, the bike insurance peeps. And aptly enough we have a WSB feel to the front end of Front End Chatter, as the racing season kicks off with a triplet of cracking races from Phillip's Island in Australialia. Sadly, that's about as far as racing is likely to go for a good few months yet, as global events demonstrate racing is not, in fact, life. Luckily we still have a few new bikes to chunter about, as well as a bulging FEC-sac with topics as diverse as... the best bike to replace a 1400GTR, is riding morally wrong, leathers buying advice and the correct underwear, and riding in France on a bike that smells. Hope you enjoy the show, please email your thoughts, musings, questions and ideas to [email protected] And get Simon or Martin on the Twit/Insta socials: @SimonHBikes @Mufga Thanks again, and buy your insurance from Bennetts – and check out their Bennetts Rewards offers!

Hello and welcome to Front End Chatter, Britain's best and most motorcycling podcast, supported through slim and thin by the veritable font (or indeed fount; both are legitimate) of tests and news and reviews, bikesocial.co.uk. And of course Bennetts, the bike insurance specialists – check out their customer rewards and make the most of being insured!

Right. Nothing going on here. Nothing to see, move along.

No, of course we have ill-informed gossip about:

• Norton – the story you've probably already heard, where you can read a bit more, and – while it's a mere spec of insignificance compared to the very real issue and pain of people losing their life savings – we discuss the role of the motorcycle media in the sorry saga
• Triumph's new Tiger 900 – what's the crank like?
• Kawasaki's new Z1000S... sorry! Ninja 1000SX – what's the steering like?
• Suzuki's V-Strom 1050 XT – what's the paint job like?*

*It's gorgeous!

• MotoGP is nearly back, with the closest testing times from Sepang in the history of ever meaning it's even more pointless to try and derive any relevance from it – and why the top-placed factory rider has a V-Strom 1000...
• news on Iannone's hair and sausage drug defence
• and of course the mighty FEC-sack, including:
• how to wave at other riders
• VFR800Fi or late 90s Blade?
• do mods make a used bike more or less valuable?
• how to overcome a fear of leaning a bike through corners

...and much more.

Thanks again for lending us your ears – we really appreciate it – and thanks for all your emails which are truly thought provoking, funny, interesting and just plain daft. Please keep them coming – addressed to:

[email protected]

Thanks to our friends and benefactors at Bennetts and bikesocial.co.uk – the place for your all biking information, and bike and travel insurance.

Get us both on the socials

@Mufga

@SimonHbikes and simonhbikes (Instagram)

Hello and welcome to E109 of Front End Chatter, a biking podcast without barriers or boundaries – we know not the meaning of constraints other than the fairly obvious extent of our knowledge and articulacy, the limits of both of which will become obvious as soon as you press 'Play'.

However. Enormous and sincere thanks to our patrons at bikesocial.co.uk, which is where you should go for new bike news, reviews, consumer info and racing gubbins – and Bennetts, the bike insurance bods who are often the cheapest and even when they're not, at least put something back into biking. Like this podcast. It's not all about you, you know.

Aaaaand on this edition of FEC we have:

• no news to speak of because the last FEC was plenty newsy enough thanks
• a patchy film review of 1917 – Kermode & Mayo we are not
• what we've both been up to, including riding around the Peaks on a 2020 Africa Twin, and a visit to Triumph's splendid museum at Hinckley...
• a look at the state of UK biking in 2019: what's selling and what isn't
• gossip about Ducati's V4 Superleggera
• a rant about the irrelevance of quoting dry weight figures instead of wet weight figures... in fact, taking any manufacturers' quoted figures as gospel and repeating them, parrot-fashion, without question. And does it even matter?
• FEC sack emails on a wonderful variety of topics such as:
• protective clothing standards and the merits of textiles v leather
• the return of two-stroke to MotoGP
• snowflakes
• how to deal with mansplaining
• motorcycling dead ends and missed opportunities
• long legs and webbed toes

...and much, much more. Thanks for listening, apologies for rambling on so much (never mind editing your letters, we should try editing the replies), and please keep your mails and thoughts and queries coming to:

[email protected]

Big up 'spec again to bikesocial.co.uk and Bennetts...

And get us both on the Twitters (again)

@Mufga

@SimonHbikes

Aye.

Hello, welcome and feel free, literally, to feast your aurals on Front End Chatter, A Most Biking Podcast, with this being Episode 108 delivered in a stream of barely comprehensible noughts and ones directly into your earballs courtesy of the UK's most celebratory biking website, www.bikesocial.co.uk and Bennetts, the number one and ONLY place to get your bike insurance because they actually put something back into biking, including this podcast, unlike certain other so-called 'motorcycle' insurance companies who are all just take, take, take. Yeah. You know it, brother.. 🤘 Simon and Martin's scrambled thinking this week includes:

• the fall-out from Andrea Weeannone's B sample* *warning, may contain drug references and mild ridicule • the fall-out from Guy Martin's court case – oh, hang on, there is none... • the fall-out from a certain Donington Castle-based motorcycle manufacturer facing a winding-up order if their tax bill isn't paid pronto... • more of your emails, thoughts, comment, queries and questions drawn from all four corners of the globe and placed in the mighty FEC sack... ...hang on, a globe hasn't got corners. Enjoy the show, and please email us on [email protected] Or harass Martin on Twitter: @Mufga But not Simon because he's a snowflake Laters, taters.

Hello and welcome to E107 of Front End Chatter, Britain's most biodegradable biking podcast, oralised by Martin Fitz-Gibbons and Simon Hargreaves, and supported and recycled by the green bins at bikesocial.co.uk and Bennetts, the bike insurance specialists.

And in this fab, decidedly retrospective episode we have:

• under-achieving factory Aprilia rider Andrea Iannone is in trouble with the FIM after a urine sample is found to contain performance-enhancing drugs. Mr Iannone is understood to be seeking a refund from his dealer under the Consumer Rights Act
• as the year crawls to its conclusion like a slug looking for the exit sign, FEC goes back 12 months to watch ourselves gazing into our crystal balls and compares what we thought we'd be saying then to, er, now...
• ...and as the decade grinds to a crushing defeat we also look back at the trends and changes we've seen in motorcycling over the last ten years, the look forward to what's to come in the next ten...
• plus more of your FEC-sack emails, including subjects as varied as helmets turning to cork, possibly thanks to corrosive perspiration, and/or adding a Best Before date to the lining, sat navs v smart phones part deux, semi-active Fireblade Öhlins v upgrading suspension, why some endurance race bikes have yellow headlights and much much more....

Thanks for listening, you've still been wonderful. Props to my man at bikesocial.co.uk – a tumescent repository of motorcycling wisdom – and Bennetts, whose insurance superstardom continues to include 10% off at Halfords on top of goodness knows what else.

Please email your thoughts, queries, questions, musings and mitherings to:

[email protected]

Fank youse.

Hello and welcome to Front End Chatter E106, Britain's fave biking podcast, supported and enabled by the good people at bikesocial.co.uk and Bennetts, the bike insurance specialists.

And in this fab, decidedly non-Xmassy, episode we have:

• relatively informed but mostly speculative chatter about Triumph's new Tiger 900, including probably far too much thinking about its innovative T-bone crank – explained in an aural medium with the help of a drum machine
• Guy Martin off that telly they have now recreates a half century-old movie stunt by jumping a Triumph over a fence in Austria. Or Bavaria. They all look the same with your eyes shut. Which he probably did when he landed
• the pros and cons of riding a pair of premium litre sportsbikes on the road in December
• more of your FEC-sack emails, including subjects as varied as magazines making up letters, does size matter when it comes to riding style, and being gear-shamed in public

Thanks for listening, you've been wonderful. Big up my man at Bikesocial.co.uk – an outstanding repository of motorcycling wisdom – and Bennetts, whose insurance wizardry includes 10% off at Halfords.

Please email your thoughts, queries, questions, musings and mitherings to:

[email protected]

Fank youse.

Hello hello hello and welcome to Front End Chatter, Britain's rambliest biking podcast with him, Martin Fitz-Gibbons and me, Simon Hargreaves – enabled, legitimised and somewhat vindicated by Bikesocial.co.uk – the world's largest repository, depository and not the one beginning with 's'-itory of all modern new and used motorcycle info – and Bennetts, the bike insurance specialists.

And on E105 we have:

• Motorcycle Live round-up – what we thought of Honda's Blade, Kawasaki's Z H2, Ducati's Streetfighter, Triumph's Rocket and Suzuki's V-Big Strom, and what we didn't think of Aprilia's RS660, Husqvarna's Denis and BMW's R1800 concept because they weren't there...
• goodbye to Jorge Lorenzo, a 'complicated' champion
• goodbye to Karel Abraham, with a 'complicated' exit
• hello to Alex, brother of Marc. Can't see that ending well

Plus a super-massive FEC-sack including...

• what is it with Ducati and cam belts?
• is Aprilia's CapoNord an alternative to Ducati's Multistrada 1200?
• leathers v textiles for commuting, and the best options for wearing over office clothes
• is your bike a shrinker or a grower?
• what happened to normal-sized tail units?

...and much, much, too much more.

Thank you for listening, and thank you for joining in with the conversation by emailing your thoughts, questions, considerations and jokes to:

[email protected] Please visit bikesocial.co.uk for your two-wheeled info, check out Bennetts' YouTube channel for some cool bike vids (still Africa Twin, ahem), and get your bike and travel insurance from the mighty Bennetts themselves. And don't forget to check out their offers!

@SimonHBikes @Mufga

Hello and welcome to Front End Chatter episode 104, eventually, brought to you by via the web's best motorcycling website, bikesocial.co.uk, and Bennetts, the bike insurance specialists, via the mouths of Simon Hargreaves and Martin Fitz-Gibbons.

But before we kick off – come and chat to Martin and Simon for real at Motorcycle Live at the NEC on the Bennetts stand (Hall 4 Stand 4B 25) on Thursday 21st November between 11am to 12pm, then again 2pm to 3pm.

So it's a really simple FEC this week: bit of racing, then a metric tonne of new bike news, conjecture, comment and opinion – including:

• Aprilia's RS660, Tuono and Tuareg
• BMW's F900XR
• Ducati's Streetfighter V4
• Harley's Pan Am
• Honda's Blade and Africa Twin
• Husqvarna's Denis concept
• Kawasaki's Z H2 and Z1000SX
• KTM's 390 Adventure, 890 Duke R and 890 Adventure. Um...
• Suzuki's lovely, lovely, lovely DR Big 1050
• Triumph's... er... hello? Hello?
• Yamaha's Tracy 7

We ramble on for so long we run out of time for the FEC sack so apologies if it's not a vintage episode, but at least it makes FEC150 a bit of a no-brainer. Thank you for listening, and thank you for joining in with the conversation by emailing your thoughts, questions, considerations and jokes to:

[email protected] Please visit bikesocial.co.uk for your two-wheeled info, check out Bennetts' YouTube channel for some cool bike vids (Africa Twin, ahem), and get your bike and travel insurance from the mighty Bennetts themselves. And don't forget to check out their offers! AND – see you at Motorcycle Live at the NEC on the Bennetts stand (Hall 4 Stand 4B 25) on Thursday 21st November between 11am to 12pm, then again 2pm to 3pm. And probably a few points in between.

@SimonHBikes @Mufga