Hello and welcome to....

THE FECTACULAR! 

Yes, this is the century, the big one-zero-zero, the 100-not-out, the five-score... and widely rumoured to be the last ever Front End Chatter podcast with him, Martin Fitz-Gibbons, and him, Simon Hargreaves, loins girded by the veritable cod-piece of motorcycling on the web, bikesocial.co.uk, and Bennetts, the bike insurance specialists.

And in this very special live-in-front-of-an-audience-in-the-canteen-at-Cadwell-Parkingtons (although we sound like we're actually in the toilet; do we look like sound engineers?) we have:

• MotoGP from Red Bull Ring Pull in Austria in which Mark Marquez and Andrea Dovizioso swapped paint atoms until on of them won, and Johann Zarco agreed to a split at the end of the season with KTM – because obviously it won’t go any further south before then, will it?
• Yamaha’s Ténéré 700 and KTM 70 Adventure R on the MCN250 test route (but at a track day, we’re kinda preaching to the unconvertible)
• the best upgrade from a GSR750 for a bit more comfort and more miles
• what categories of bike are missing from the modern range, and what’s biking’s next big ‘thing’?
• are brake lever protectors or bark busters best for clipping car mirrors during filtering?
• what’s a Moto Morini Milano, and is it like a Triumph Hinckley or KTM Mattighofen?
• what’s our biggest biking disappointment?
• is the future of the TT safe? And was it safe in 1998?
• ...and much, much, a bit, more!

Thanks to everyone who came along to Cadwell to make the FECtacular truly special, and contributed to a small moment of something.

And if you’ve downloaded Front End Chatter in the last five years, thank you.

Thanks also to bikesocial.co.uk and Bennetts for their enduring good humour and tolerance of a pair of chattering idiots, and please download Front End Chatter via

bennetts.co.uk/bikesocial/news-and-views/features/podcasts

We’re on Twitter at @Mufga and @SimonHbikes, and occasionally elsewhere...

See your ears for FEC101 soon... or will we? Yeah, go on then.

Hello and welcome to Front End Chatter Episode 99, the Nearly-But-Not-Quite episode brought to your ears in cahoots with the best biking website on the, er, web – bikesocial.co.uk – and the best biking insurers in the, er, universe, Bennetts.

And for your delectation:

• remarkable Mark Marquez marks his all-time record-equalling 58th pole position at Brno by qualifying with the biggest margin in the modern MotoGP era...
• ...although technically and mathematically, there’s still a chance Hafizh Syahrin could still take the title...
• ...but anyway, MotoGP is boring now because the same guy keeps winning all the time so we’re all going to watch WSB instead...
• ...or maybe we should watch BSB, with Scotch Redding still leading the championship after Thruxton, but by less, from Josh Brookes, not that it matters because, basically, Showdown...
• ...although we only needed to watch the last lap at the Suzuka 8hr because for 7hrs 57mins some bikes went round the track until Jonny Rea fell off and then won in the restaurant.

PLUS!

• an audio review of Moto Guzzi’s V85 TT ridden for 1000 miles in 35°C

AND! Your emails, including...

• Triumphs are still reliable
• with a few new bikes now coming with an SP (or R) version with uprated suspension, would it be worth buying the standard-suspended model instead and spending the difference getting it uprated by an aftermarket suspension specialist?
• how far does Mufga need to shove the drugs up his... oh, you had to be there, really...
• which used naked bike to upgrade from an Aprilia Shiver 750: Ducati Streetfighter 848, Monster 1200, Aprilia Tuono V4 or Triumph Street Triple RS? Or Speed Triple, even?
• would you rather have a perfect bike from a shitty dealer, or a bike with a few teething troubles from a really good dealer?
• is a late-1990s GSX-R SRAD750 or 600 still a good sportsbike today? Or is there something better from the same era?
• DO NOT MOCK THE MIGHTY DEAUVILLE... please
• ...and much, much more. No, really, even more.

Thanks for listening!

• Please come to FEC#100, live at Cadwell Park near Louth, Lincs, on Tuesday Aug 13th
• email your thoughts, questions and comments to FEC100@frontendchatter.com
• or why not record us a FEC#100 message? Just a simple “Please stop, again!” would suffice...
• visit www.bikesocial.co.uk for your motorcycling news, stories, fun and frolicking about
• go get your insurance from Bennetts
• book yourself on the FECtacular/FECstival on 13th August at Cadwell Park
• follow @SimonHbikes and @Mufga on the Twitters, Instas etc
• and hello to Mr and Mrs Preston