Hello everybody, and welcome to a quick but exciting FEC cordially inviting you, dear FEC listener, to the Bennetts Snetterton Track Day on Thursday 13th July.

We’re going, and we’d love you to be there with us for a chin-wag and a cup of coffee.

Bennetts BikeSocial trackdays aren’t like other trackdays – they’re WAY better.

As well as 7 x 20-minute track sessions, with novice, intermediate and advanced group options, you’ll also get FREE action shots taken by a professional British Superbikes photographer, and be able to meet and ride on track with Mr John McGuinness.

An onsite BSB mechanic will offer set-up advice, a team of instructors will offer riding tips, and Yamaha track hire bikes are available to book. If you’re a novice, this is the perfect introduction – there’s an extended safety briefing if it’s your first time, plus two free classroom sessions offering advice on body position and circuit riding.

And all of this costs just £139 – an absolute bargain.

Normally Bennetts trackdays are only available to BikeSocial members, but we’ve swung a deal to allow FEC listeners to come along too, even if you’re not a BikeSocialist.

We'll be there, and we’ll have a garage put aside exclusively for the use of FECers.

Obviously you will need all the usual trackday safety kit (ACU approved full-face helmet, full one-piece or complete zip-together two-piece leathers, proper boots and leather gloves and all the rest) plus a full length back protector, and a front brake lever guard or hand-guards, and your bike will need to meet the noise limit (102DB static / 92DB driveby).

To book, you’ll need to head to the link below:

https://rewards.bennetts.co.uk/rewards/snetterton-trackday-13072023-discount-voucher-code

You’ll find all the info you need, the terms & conditions, plus a link to take you through to book your place, at Snetterton, on Thursday 13th July.

See you there!

Hello, good morning and welcome to Front End Chatter, Britain's best general-purpose biking podcast (apart from racing podcasts, of which there are many and excellent). This is Episode 177 of nonsense, the first since the FEC Grin Up North tour. And it's been a while because Simon and Martin have been busy eking a living from the dry, dusty soil of freelance motorcycle journalism. 

Thanks as always to Bennetts, with whom you ought to be insured for so many reasons – they're actually motorcyclists, for a start. And they support www.bikesocial.co.uk and its associated YouTube channel, where you can find road tests, launches, news, proper consumer advice and loads more genuinely useful, and entertaining, stuff. Check out becoming a BikeSocial Member, because the money-off offers alone are more than worthwhile – not to mention the competition offers. 

Anyway, on this episode of FEC Simon and Martin natter about: 

• The FEC800 Grin Up North Tour
• Martin's impressions of Suzuki's GSX-S1000 GT+
• Simon's impressions of Honda's Gold Wing
• Honda's DCT system and why it's taken 13 years for Simon to get over himself 
• why Ireland is SO NICE!
• speculation about BMW's M1000XR
• some truths about the hydrogen as an alternative fuel, and why the Japanese manufacturers have got together to find out it's probably not the answer
• your FEC Sack questions and queries including why changing your tyres is a Good Thing, why there's good riding in the south of England if you go looking for it, is Ducati's Monster defined by a trellis frame, and riding bikes before you were born. *From* before you were born, not actually pre-womb. 

Thanks for listening, send your questions, thoughts and lunatic ravings to anything@frontendchatter.com

Get me and Martin on the socials
@simohbikes
@Mufga 

This episode is dedicated to the memory of Boz. 

Hello and welcome to Front End Chatter E176...

LIVE FROM THE 2023 GRIN OOP NORTH TOUR!

Yes folks, after a lengthy absence due to life, the universe and everything, Front End Chatter is back – and not only back, but back LIVE. Recorded in front of a hand-picked audience of FEC friends from a hotel in Lancashire, your hosts Simon Hargreaves and Martin Fitz-Gibbons talk a load of nonsense including:

• guff about the new Suzuki GSX-S 8S and why it might be better than Honda’s Hornet

• guff about the new Yamaha Tracer 9 GT+ and how it helps you brake

• Mufga goes trials riding with Inch Perfect Trials

• plus questions from the audience, including:
• how to set-up, or not, a GSX-S1000S

• why pillion seats are so small
• how to save motorcycling

• who will build the last petrol engine ever

And a bit more.

Thanks as always to Bennetts and BikeSocial.co.uk for their enduring and endearing support.

Thanks also to Paul at MCI Tours (www.mcitours.com) for organising and managing the FEC Grin Oop North Tour.

Thanks to the staff of Crooklands Hotel, Kendal, for their hospitality.

And, more than anything, thanks to our friends on the FEC Grin Oop North Tour 2023:
Matt, DJ, Peter, Jamie, Owain, Dale, Paul, Jono, George, John, Iestyn, Fazer John & Pamela, Andy & Carol, Stuart & Leonie, Stuart & Jenny, PJ, Connor, Matt, Avi and Jake.

@SimonHbikes
@Mufga

Hello and welcome to Episode 175 of Front End Chatter, Britain’s funkiest motorcycling podcast, presented by Simon Hargreaves and Martin Fitz-Gibbons, supported as ever by Bennetts, the bike insurance specialists, and BikeSocial.co.uk, the best place to get your motorcycling news and other two-wheeled resources.

And on FEC175 we have:

• Simon becomes one of a handful of humans to ride both Suzuki’s V-Strom 800DE and Honda’s Transalp at their respective launches – find out what he thinks and which one might suit you

• KTM and MV Agusta re-organise their dealers (which only matters to the half of the podcast who owns an MV Agusta)

• Irish road racing is back on after securing £90,000 from crowdfunding and a renegotiation of their insurance premium, which is good news – although is this now going to be an annual issue?

• the first two races from World Superbike at Phillip Island and Mandalika

• plus more of our emails, including:

            - the when and where of throttle snatch

            - why can’t I go round right handers?

            - how come Sikhs don’t have to wear helmets?

            - recalibrating quickshifters – urban myth or actual thing?

            - why does my bum ache?

...and much more...

Thank you very much for listening, and please send your thoughts, queries and random comedy motorcycling moments to

anything@frontendchatter.com

@SimonHbikes

@Mufga

Dearest FECers, welcome to episode 174 of the long-running – well, it's our ninth birthday, apparently, Happy Birthday to us etc – motorcycling podcast brought to you by Simon Hargreaves and Martin Fitz-Gibbons, and ably, nimbly and elastically supported by Bennetts, the bike insurance specialists (and if you haven't yet, you really should) and bikesocial.co.uk, the world of wokecycling on the web. 

And on this episode of FEC we have: 
• Martin making his spring comeback on his MV
• top tips for getting back into it after a winter lay-off
• the current state of play on the roads in Ireland
• Simon rides BMW's R1250 RS and gets confused by Triumph's DRLs
• plus a bunch of FECmails including naming your bike, which Guzzi, does your confidence dip, and what a compression and why is it ratioed? 

Thanks for listening once more, please spread the word, and please keep sending your thoughts, ponderings, musings, anecdotes, jokes, questions and offers of, well, anything, to:
anything@frontendchatter.com

@SimonHBikes
@Mufga

Hello & welcome to Front End Chatter with him, Martin Fitz-Gibbons, and me, Simon Harararargreaves. This is episode #173 of a long-running saga, in which we are as ever indebted to Bennetts, the only bike insurers who actually invest a shed-load back into British motorcycling culture to promote the British Superbike series, create an ocean of free content at www.BikeSocial.co.uk, planted the seeds for a rich and fertile YouTube channel, and allow FEC to come in your ears once a fortnight. That's gotta be worth the entry fee. 

And on this fortnight's FEC we have a new bike blitz with the return of the sports 400 in the unlikely shape of Kawasaki's ZX-4RR, the return of the sports touring supermoto with KTM's 890 SMT, and the debut of Suzuki's V-Strom with a 21in front wheel.

We also dive into the FEC sack – and, in a break with tradition, we harvest it from the top down, responding to the most current emails first (mostly commenting on FEC172's rather depressing message about the end of life as we know it). 

Anyway, we're still here, you're still here, and bikes are still awesome. So we're good. 

Please keep the questions (bike choice or existential), plus any other queries, comments and funny stories, coming to us at:
anything@frontendchatter.com
Catch us on the socials at: 
@SimonHBikes
@Mufga

Aye. 

Hello and welcome to Front End Chatter Episode 172, hosted by Simon Hargreaves and Martin Fitz-Gibbons and supported in their noble endeavours by Bennetts, the bike insurance gurus, and bikesocial.co.uk, the world wide web of wokorcycling. 

Bit of a special episode of FEC – c'mon, keep it light – as we visit the Motorcycle Industry Association annual conference and speak to the head of the MCIA, Tony Campbell, to find out what the great and the good of the British motorcycle industry are doing to prepare for the UK government's proposal to ban the sale of new petrol-engined bikes in just over a decade from now. It's not all bad news, but some of it might be. 

Thanks for listening, and please email your thoughts, reactions, questions and opinions to: 
anything@frontendchatter.com
Get us on the socials: 
@SimonHBikes
@Mufga

Hello and welcome to Front End Chatter E171 and I’m a bit short on time this week so here’s a condensed version of the usual word salad: FEC is a motorcycling podcast created by Martin Fitz-Gibbons and Simon Hargreaves, a pair of motorcycle content creators (I wrote a load of other stuff here about crumbling ivory towers but thought the better of it and pressed delete).

Meanwhile, FEC is truly, deeply, madly proud to be supported and fertilised by the good people of Bennetts, the bike insurance specialists, and bikesocial.co.uk, the best motorcycling website in the world. Pay them a visit, check out what's going on, and get involved with Bennetts Membership with all its offers and discounts. And there are many. 

Bit of a slow news week for this episode, so in the absence of actual news worth repeating we have a deep dive into the FECsack instead, covering so many topics you might as well listen than have me type them out here, if that's ok? Ta. 

Please keep your thoughts, queries, musings and mumblings coming in to:
anything@frontendchatter.com

And thank you for your continued aural appreciation. 

@SimonHBikes
@Mufga