Front End Chatter

• Front End Chatter #217

  Hello everyone and welcome to THE 2025 FECSTIVAL – live from the beautiful Buccleuch Arms Hotel in stunning, sun-drenched (cough, ish, ahem) Moffat, Scotlandshire! After a couple of fantastic (truth), incident-free (truth-ish) and bone-dry (truth-adjacent) days riding through the very best of the Scottish Borders and the Galloway Forest, Front End Chatter – Britain’s best biking podcast – has retired to the bar for a small sweet sherry, a roaring radiator, and 43 minutes of inspired, improvised, impromptu biking banter and deep-drivel discussions including: Marc Marquez’s ninth (or is it seventh?) world championship, if his comeback really is the greatest return ever witnessed across the near-infinite history of sporting achievement, and whether MotoGP’s new owners are trying to control our collective thoughts Witnessing hostility towards Chinese-branded bikes thaw in real time, the reasons we’re starting to be interested (b£¥ond the obviou$), and how soon before the first one is part of a FEC tour Nominations for the greatest, must-ride, can’t-miss riding roads in all of mainland continental Europe, especially if the definition of ‘mainland continental Europe’ now includes the UK and a bit of America… Could electric bikes be the future of trackdays? Simon & Mufga's mixed fortunes with electric bikes on track. And could Front End Chatter’s future lie in someone’s fuel tank? Radical suggestions for reorganising bike ergonomics and controls, featuring foot clutch, backwards-action left-hand throttle and bum brake The perfect bike for when you're retiring to live in Japan Thank you FECers one and all - and to Paul, Jo and Anthea at MCi Tours - for joining us at the 2025 FECstival, either live and in person or via time-travelling earholes. And, of course, sincerest gratitudes as ever to Bennetts, Britain’s best bike insurers, for continuing to enhance, advance and romance Front End Chatter – don’t forget to get a quote direct from Bennetts the next time your motorcycle insurance is up for renewal, then be sure to buy your policy direct so you can enjoy more than 100 offers, discounts and exclusive opportunities all thanks to a year’s free BikeSocial membership! Ciao for now – and maybe see you at Motorcycle Live in November…  

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• Front End Chatter #216

  Aye, wotcha, marnin', welcome to Front End Chatter, wiv him, Simon Fitz-Martin, and him Hargreaves Gibbons, a reet pair of motorcycle journalists speaking into a wizardy recording device for the 216th time of asking, except nobody is. You get what you deserve.  Massive thanks to Bennetts, Britain's Best bike insurers, and bikesocial.co.uk, for their support of this podcast, and seemingly limitless reserves of patience and understanding at this most trying of times (and we really are trying).  And on this week's FEC (which week is that exactly?) we have:  • why Triumph's 2025 Speed Triple RS has got us so excited we're figuratively and, in Simon's case literally, standing to attention  • why Kawasaki's Ninja 1100SX SE Tourer is a genuine contender for 'Sports Tourer of 2025" as if that's an actual thing, which it isn't, really • why Yamaha's Tracer 7 GT is a genuine contender for "Sports Tourer of 2025 under 1000cc" as if that's also an actual thing, which it also isn't, also really • why BMW's R1300 RT is more like a sports tourer, with a longer tank range and as long as you don't do more than 400 miles in a day • how journalists have tested the patience of manufacturers (how many fingers have you got?) • why CFMoto's 450 MT is about to take over the world All this and not much more, come on, it was gone 9pm when we finished and I needed a lie down with a stiff one, it might not be the most physically demanding job but I don't remember that last time a plumber had to compromise his principles quite as often. Dahling.  Right, enough, go away, but not before you've summoned your thoughts, musings, queries, questions and hilarious stories of motorcycling mishaps and mayhem and committed them to an email to:  [email protected] We remain your effervescent amis Simon H Mufga Ride yer bike. You know it makes very little sense. 

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• Front End Chatter #215

  Hello and welcome to Front End Chatter, and it’s episode 215 of the long-running motorcycling podcast with him, Martin Fitz-Gibbons, and him, Simon Hargreaves – and immense thanks as always to the ever-supportive Bennetts, Britain’s best-by-miles bike insurer, and the magnificent bikesocial.co.uk, the website with all your info on the latest new bikes, used bikes, classic bikes, news, reviews and product tests. Right, on with the show – and, today, we’re in for a reborn, reinvented, reimagined, reincarnated treat... because: • Suzuki’s GSX-R1000R is back, baby, for 2026 – and we have all the details, hot off the emails from Hamamatsu: power, weight, colours and tech. You can read about it elsewhere – but you can only hear about it, er, here • KTM are back, baby – details of production starting again in Austria; the what, the when, and the how many • BSA’s Bantam is back, baby – yes, after only half a century, the owners of BSA, Mahindra, decide to resurrect the name for their new 334cc single roadster, as a direct rival to Honda’s GB350S • and of course the FECsack is back, baby – more musings, ponderings and queries from you lot to us lot about that lot Thanks for listening, please email your own compositions and questions and congratulations to Mufga on his new job to: [email protected] – and we’ll do our best to read them out.   Thank ee again, and see you on the backside, baby!

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• Front End Chatter #214

  Hello and welcome to Front End Chatter, Britain's crumbliest, flakiest motorcycling podcast, brought to you by the hapless hackery of Simon Hargreaves and Martin Fitz-Gibbons, nattering endlessly on and on and on anon. We are, as always, scrutineered and scrutinised by Bennetts, Britain's Best Bike Insurer, and bikesocial.co.uk (don't need the www, but try telling legacy media that).  And this month (as it turns out) on FEC, we witter about: • Suzuki's new GSX-S8T and TT (cue schoolboy giggling)  • CCM going bust • Dainese in debt • global bike sales doing well, but not so much in Europe or North America, a pretty awful in the UK • why automatic gearboxes are the opposite of a guitar solo Plus much more, well, a bit... Thank you for lending us your ears, and please keep you thoughts, musings, machinations and queries to: [email protected] Love ya! 

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• Front End Chatter #213

  Hello dearest ear-owners and welcome to Front End Chatter, source of the most significant soundwaves in British motorcycling since the feral howl of a raging Norton rotary haunted the quiet coastal village of Kirk Michael, or since the words "Go on then, I'll 'ave it" slipped breathlessly from the lips of a Derbyshire-born property developer attending the auction of a defunct motorcycle factory. In this aural delight of an episode, Simon and Mufga regale themselves with a recap of the spectacularly special Highland Fling tours (so good they did them twice), along with: • Loadsa goss about Triumph's Tiger Sport 800 and BMW's R1300GS Adventure having covered 3000 miles apiece • Why MotoGP might be getting interesting again, and why the TT continues to fascinate every corner of the country for more than a century • The forced-induction fabulousness that was the Bennetts Supercharged Showdown, where 50-plus Kawasaki H2 owners took over an empty runway • Simon gets a taste of Ducati's £16,000 Streetfighter V2S • Martin gets a taste of Voge's £6,000(ish) DS625X • The latest facts, news, rumours and baseless speculation regarding Bajaj's takeover of KTM, and what it might mean for the future • FECsack correspondence covering classic sports-tourers for young riders, the dubious bargains of Facebook Marketplace, how media gets hold of the bikes they test, bikes with undeserved reputations, the best British five-day biking tour, and more… Thank you, one and all, for continuing to allow us to tickle your tympanic membranes - and enormously gigantical appreciations to Bennetts, Britain's best bike insurers. Be sure to get a quote direct from Bennetts the next time you need motorcycle insurance, and be even more sure to check out bikesocial.co.uk for all the best bike news and product reviews on the interwebs. Continue to catch him and the other one on the socials (@simonhbikes & @mufga or something like that), and let us know where to take future FEC tours on [email protected] Until next time!

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