Had enough of cold turkey? Fear not, here’s your fix of Front End Chatter Episode 69, served in a very small tin foil hat with a side-order of www.bikesocial.co.uk in association with Bennetts, the bike insurance specialists.

And, following on from the last episode’s fab interview with Julian Ryder, this time it’s business as usual as we read through a veritable mountain of your occasionally lengthy emails, on topics as varied as:

• Does the motorcycle industry do enough to attract young riders?

• Does uploading fancy software and a few items from the accessories catalogue justify adding a few grand on the price of a new bike and calling it a premium model?

• Is motorcycling becoming too tribal?

• Will we be seeing more examples of forced induction on new models?
  
  • How British Superbike is also brilliant if you live in the US

• Why does no-one build a modular, adjustable motorbike?

• Where is the Husqvarna Vitpilen?

• Why riding a bike a great cure for illness.

• PLUS loads of other nattering and chattering...

Many thanks for your continued ears, please tell everyone you know to download the podcast and please email you thoughts, considerations and questions to:

anything@ frontendchatter.com

You can get us on the Twitter:

@SimonHbikes

@Mufga

Hope you had a great Christmas and look forward to a splendidly two-wheeled (or three) New Year!

Hello everybody and welcome to Front End Chatter, the biking podcast powered and empowered by the super-swell folk at Bike Social - that's www.bikesocial.co.uk.

In episode 68 Simon and Martin welcome a FECing guest for the first time in a long time. And not any guest, but the one and only Julian Ryder (@MotoGPJules) - journalist, broadcaster, author, antiques dealer and former WSB, 500GP and MotoGP commentator.

Fresh from putting the finishing touches to the official MotoGP Season Review 2017 (a proper book, with "not too many cockups", on sale now at Amazon), Jules talks all about one of the best racing seasons in recent memory, whether things really were better in the good old days, the greatest racers of all time, tribal fans, the MotoGP riders' rider of 2017, why each of the top names performed the way they did this year, how he'd fix World Superbikes (and whether it's important to fix), and which racing series Jules's dulcet tones might (or might not) be gracing next.

Thank you once again for allowing FEC into your ears and brain. If you enjoy it, please tell your friends, colleagues, co-worked and fellow riders to find us on www.frontendchatter.com or, better still, on www.bikesocial.co.uk.

You can also find us on Twitter - @SimonHbikes and @Mufga - and we eagerly await any and all of your emailed correspondence at anything@frontendchatter.com

Cheers until next time!

Hello and welcome to Front End Chatter 67, the Shakey’s Racing Age episode, ably supported by our friends at www.bikesocial.co.uk who are in turn supported by bike insurance bods Bennetts.

This week we natter about the small matter of a race in Valencia, some racing in Wales that actually looks like it might happen, some more gossip about the Motorcycle Live bike show they had last week (including how manufacturers cheat on seat heights), and answer a veritable raft of your emails on subjects as wide ranging as what bike you should buy.

Thanks again for your continued ears, and please spread the word of the words we speak.

You can find on Twitter – @SimonHbikes & @Mufga – and you can download this on iTunes or from www.frontendchatter.com – but we’d much rather you listened at www.bikesocial.co.uk, not least because you can lose yourself for hours browsing the library of all sorts of archived biking stuff.

Hello and welcome to Front End Chatter E66, supported by our good friends at www.bikesocial.co.uk and Bennetts, the bike insurance specialists – and who better to insure your gleaming new, 2018 motorcycle?

Because this week’s podcast is stuffed full of new bike news, gossip and opinion (admittedly, more of the latter pair than the former), fresh from the Milan bike show. In no particular order, we natter about:

• Kawasaki’s 200bhp sport-touring mega-bike, the ZZR1400. Sorry! We mean the new H2 SX/SE
• Ducati’s V4 Panigale, and whether it’s better-looking than the 1299
• Yamaha’s Niken and whether it’s actually a motorcycle
• plus chatter about Yamaha Tracer 900s, Kawasaki Z900RS and Café, Honda’s Africa Twin Adventure and CB1000R, BMW’s F850GS, Triumph’s Tigers, Ducati’s Multistrada 1260 and KTM’s 790 Duke...
• ...and seeing as how few of us can afford any of them, should we be interested?

Plus we have a brief natter about the forthcoming final MotoGP showdown at Valencia, and answer a few of emails (but not all – more to come!).

Thanks again for listening, and please email your thoughts, questions and comments to us here: anything@frontendchatter.com

Or catch us on Twitter:

@SimonHbikes

@Mufga

Hello and welcome to the long-awaited (well, about a month) Front End Chatter Episode 65 – supported as ever by our magnificent colleagues, pals and beneFECtors at www.bikesocial.co.uk and Bennetts, the bike insurance specialists.

This week FEC bangs on about subjects as wide and varied as:

• how does three-time World Superbike champ Jonathan Rea’s win-race ratio match to Carl Fogarty’s, and how to fix World Superbike (again)
• did the three-way Showdown final British Superbike round at Brands and the subsequent love-in make us want to watch it next year?
• ...and compare all that to an epic MotoGP race at Motegi

PLUS! words of gossip about what we know about 2018’s new bikes (or do we?) including

• the 2018 supercharged, sports touring Kawasaki H2R GT...
• ...and their Z900RS, and how close it’ll be to the existing Z900
• Honda’s NSC ‘New Sports Cafe’...
• ...and if the motor is based on the CB650F inline four
• Honda’s new Goldwing with its funny front end...
• KTM’s 790-800cc Duke parallel twin which probably won’t have bungees pulling the pistons back to TDC
• Yamaha’s MT-07-based T7 budget adventure bike
• Triumph’s, er, well, definitely not a 765 Daytona, say Triumph...
• Harley-Davidson’s new Softail range of, er, big V-twins including the rather splendid Fat Bob

PLUS! listeners’ questions, including:

• what supermoto as a second bike
• the law around on-bike dash-cams – and can plod nick you using your own sat nav’s ‘snail-trail’ as evidence?
• are smaller bikes less likely to get you in trouble?
• can you buy a decent used bike for the price of a new iPhone?

Thank you for listening and putting up with us – and please email any biking questions (or any questions you like) or comments to

anything@frontendchatter.com

or get us on Twitter
@SimonHbikes

@Mufga

And don’t forget to check out www.bikesocial.co.uk and get your bike insurance with Bennetts.

Hello and welcome to a special, John McGuinness Front End Chatter Episode 64, supported by our good friends at www.bikesocial.co.uk, supported by Bennetts, the bike insurer par excellence, bar none.

And what a treat this week – apart from the usual nattering about subjects as random as:

• tech details from the launch of Ducati’s 210bhp V4 Stradale engine, which is coming to a chassis that may or may not but probably will look remarkably similar to a 1299 Panigale this November
• Rossi’s broken leg bones, Cal’s severed tendon, the ramifications for the MotoGP title, and who Valentino gets to sign the plaster cast...
• why Silverstone’s MotoGP was so poorly attended (conspiracy theory alert)
• how lovely BMW’s R nineT Racer is, and why don’t other manufacturers make bikes that, simply, look beautiful?
• will the news Welsh police are actively encouraging dash-cam users to upload footage as evidence for traffic offences make you ride any differently?
• how to learn how to pronounce Ikea, Abba and Öhlins on a Magic Motor Experience tour on a Yamaha XT660R, in Sweden...

... the jewel in FEC64’s crown is the audio version of BikeSocial’s interview with TT legend John McGuinness, in which he talks about:

• the physical side effects of ‘that’ crash (caution: not for the squeamish!)
• how it’s affected his head
• what caused it and what he really thinks about the 2017 FireBlade
• what happens to his career now
• how important the race fans are to his recovery

Hope you enjoy, please say nice things and spread the word, and please email any and all questions, comments and ideas to anything@frontendchatter.com

Thanks for listening!

@SimonHbikes

@Mufga

Hello everybody and welcome to Front End Chatter #63, brought to you by the definitely-not-primates at Bike Social (that's www.bikesocial.co.uk where, as well as all the latest news, views and reviews of all things motorcycling, you'll also find a handy link to the superb insurance services of Bennetts). In this not-especially-numerically-significant episode of Britain's best biking podcast, Simon and Martin chatter about:

• MotoGP from Austria, where someone cleared off for a bit, then there was a bit of a ding-dong and someone won and someone didn't, and there was a last-lap, last-corner, last-gasp move that was actually just a bit silly even though nobody seems to want to say it (except the bloke who won).
• British Superbikes from Cadwell Park, which neither of us watched even though one of us was actually there, and which turned out to be pretty brilliant.
• The new 158bhp BMW road bike that we've both ridden but only one of us can talk about.
• Touratech going insolvent, which is all very curious given almost everyone seems to be riding an adventure bikes these days.
• Plus all of your emails - sent to anything@frontendchatter.com - including whether Triumph's new Street Triple 765 RS lives up to the hype, how to survive a group ride with complete strangers, the interweb going crazy over the GS fork recall and the reality of the situation from an owner, Sprint ST vs a Glasgow winter, whether you can tell if someone's riding style is "outright dangerous" from a photo, and plenty more.

Thank you very much for listening (hopefully through www.bikesocial.co.uk if you'd like to kindly support the folk who kindly support us). We are, as ever, @SimonHbikes and @Mufga on the Twitter, and eagerly await your thought, opinions, questions and ponderings arriving on email via anything@frontendchatter.com (yes, literally anything).

Ta-ta for now!

Hello everybody and welcome to Front End Chatter, the semi-regular spoken word salad that refuses to stray into nostalgia (other than to remember when nostalgia was better than it is today). Episode #62 continues to be supported by the wondrous website known as Bike Social (that’s www.bikesocial.co.uk) where you should definitely go to check out all the latest motorcycling news and reviews. And get an insurance quote. Go on.

In this 90-minute natter extravaganza, Simon and Martin discuss:

• MotoGP from Brno, which was either brilliant or boring, where the winner won by a move of either sheer genius or random fortune
• Is it time to wave the chequered flag on flag-to-flag races?
• Guy Martin’s future plans, and whether he’s quitting, retiring, or quitting retiring?
• The new ‘global partnership’ between Triumph and Bajaj – and how many badges can you bodge on a Bajaj?
• Is the London scooter crime spree creating a potential new marketing opportunity?
• The most expensive zeroes and ones in motorcycling

Plus all of your emails covering everything from a little-known but much-loved Australian bike-gang film, recalling recalls and more GS stanchion shenanigans, the exceptional machines of Honda’s golden period, overlooked V-twins, bargain sports-tourers, the value of ABS, a reason to speed, the blame game, and the best bikes we’ve crashed.

Thank you very much once again for listening. If you’d like to chatter back, email us on anything@frontendchatter.com or find us on the Twitters – he is @SimonHbikes and he is @Mufga

And if you’re going to fire up your interwebsitebrowser, don’t forget to point it towards www.bikesocial.co.uk !

Hello everybody and welcome to Front End Chatter – Britain's best biking podcast, powered (and empowered) by the wondrous two-wheeled website known as Bike Social (that's www.bikesocial.co.uk – and you should definitely check them out).

It's episode 61, which as everybody knows is the **must remember to search Google for an obscure name of somebody who once raced a motorcycle with number 61 here** episode. Which, ironically, has very little racing at all, being mostly composed of:

• Chatter about the front end of BMW's R1200GS, and how the previous service campaign – not a recall – to fix the fork stanchions is, erm, ahem, cough, now a recall.
• Martin rides to a village in the German Alps to drink beer in the company of 40,000 bikes, while Simon rides to a café near Whitchurch for the world's largest all-female bikers meeting.
• Aprilia's Shiver 900, and why are "middleweight"s getting so big now?
• Plus roughly one trillion and seventy-two of your finest emails, covering everything from Yamaha Tracer adverts, insurance groups, the best bikes ever to grace the silver screen, Simon gets his helmet out to demonstrate something to Martin, is the new Fireblade changing its tune or is that just the rider, and lots and lots and lots more.

To chatter back to us, email anything@frontendchatter.com or Twit us on @SimonHbikes and @Mufga

And, of course, go take a look at Bike Social!

Welcome to Front End Chatter E60, sponsored as always by our good friends at www.bikesocial.co.uk and backed by Bennetts, the bike insurance boys and girls. And what a scandal-laden FEC we have this week:

• despite a truncated MotoGP/racing section we still manage to disrespeculate on Lorenzo’s future at Ducati and compare his debut season so far to Rossi’s disaster in 2011...

• get into the financial fall-out from the shambles formally known as the Circuit Of Wales...

• details of the new Ducati V4 replacement for the Panigale, after the Final Edition – which, it turns out, might not be so final after all, and will be available from September this year and will cost £35,000...

• ...and why the V-twin is the most versatile engine layout ever built

• BMW’s service campaign to check all R1200GSs and GSAs built between late 2013 to date, to make sure the forks aren’t about to fall off – and why we should or shouldn’t be alarmed by it

• and how Honda’s blighted 2017 FireBlade, both base and SP versions, stands up at a Mallory Park track day – a Bennetts Mallory Park track day, no less – against Suzuki’s new GSX-R1000R

All this takes so long we don’t get time to read any emails at all, so apologies – but at least it means we’ll have a another non-racing FEC in a few weeks’ time!

Thanks again for listening, and please email us at anything@frontendchatter.com with questions and comments, or get us on the Twitter:

@SimonHBikes & @Mufga

Welcome to Front End Chatter E59, brought to you in association with our good friends at www.bikesocial.co.uk, sponsored by Bennetts, the bike insurance specialists.

AND! What an episode we have!

Just in time for the Assen MotoGP race this weekend, Front End Chatter recaps the previous round at Catalunya (apologies for the delay, delay, delay and don’t worry, because it was so long ago we keep it brief) – and it’s worth reminding ourselves what a hilarious, thigh-slapping sit-com of a race weekend it was with riders using the wrong track (but still in Spain), other riders falling over things and some riders falling over themselves.

We also cover – unusually – a cracking World Superbike race from Misano and find it a rewarding experience. Which is more than can be said for Ducati’s Charles Davies.

We’ve a bit more race goss, including a possible return to racing for former WSB champ and ex-Yamaha MotoGP star Bens Pies, Iannone moving from Suzuki to Aprilia, why it would be cool to see Jonathan Rea switching from WSB to jump on the MotoGP Suzuki, why tyres ‘spin’ on the rim, the latest British Superbike round from Knockhill, and who is Jake Dixon and is he in the RAF? Plus a bit of natter about Hutchy’s awful Senior TT crash. Yikes.

We also read out a few of your emails, including:

• more disrespeculation about Honda’s FireBlade,
• wrist relief on motorways,
• recommended heated clothing,
• a bit of a rant about why magazine and web new bike ‘tests’ may or may not be all they seem,
• the blurring of distinction between PR and journalism, and
• is riding fast an addiction, and what can you do about it?

We think that’s quite enough controversy for one episode, so if you enjoy FEC please

a) tell your mates,

b) email us with a question or a topic for discussion,

c) insure your bike with Bennetts and

d) buy RiDE magazine. We may be bought and paid for, but at least we’re honest about it.

Thanks, and talk at you again soon!

@SimonHbikes

@Mufga

anything@frontendchatter.com

Hello and welcome to Front End Chatter Episode 58, supported by www.bikesocial.co.uk and sponsored by Bennetts – and a very special, fully employed episode it is too; featuring, as it does:

1) Mugello MotoGP goss including

• Rossi’s motocross crash
• a worrying resemblance to a CGI character from Lord Of The Rings
• a bad case of the shlitz
• fast Ducatis
• how to celebrate a win
• Mattia Pasini’s odd riding controls and his clutchless downshifts
• Triumph’s Moto2 deal

2) TT goss including – in fact almost entirely – semi-informed speculation about the travails of Honda, the 2017 Fireblade, and riders Guy Martin and John McGuinness – with an attempt to understand the connection between their accidents and the road bike (if there are any)

3) Loads of your emails, on wide-ranging subjects from the health of World Superbike and a few ideas on how to make it better, cheap motorway bikes, Husqvarna Nudas, more best-looking non-sportsbikes, and tons of other chattering.

As ever thank you very much for listening, and thank you even more for downloading it from the top folk at Bike Social (that’s still www.bikesocial.co.uk). Please email us on anything@frontendchatter.com or get us on that there Twitter using @SimonHbikes and @Mufga

Hello and welcome to Front End Chatter episode 57, which is really episode 69, powered by the mighty online juggernaut of two-wheeled infotainment that is Bike Social (that's www.bikesocial.co.uk).

This time round Martin and Simon chatter in their front-endy style about: 

• Nicky Hayden: the man, the talent, the achievements, the infectious passion, the generosity, the tears at Estoril, the tears at Valencia, the incredible strength of character, the smile. 

• MotoGP from Le Mans, where General Zarco was propelled by patriotism, Lorenzo was stumped by strine, a small fall by Rossi led to a big fall in his championship standing, and Simon got in a huff and turned his telly off before the end of the race and went to spend some time in his log cabin that Danny Kent still hasn't turned up to finish yet. 

• The red-bike, red-flag, red-fireball fest that was World Superbikes from Imola. 

• John McGuinness's crash at the North West 200, what might have caused it, and whether it might have anything to do with the slightly peculiar throttle response on the 2017 road-going Fireblade. 

• By popular demand (no, really), an excessively comprehensive review of the most promising (if hardly imaginatively named) electric road bikes yet. 

• Your emails, including plenty of air expended about the pros and cons of airbag suits, do MotoGP fans like football, does FEC hate WSB… and finally… and finally?… and finally... a forgotten and (questionably) attractive non-sportsbike from Yamaha. 

As ever thank you very much for listening, and thank you even more for downloading it from the top folk at Bike Social (that’s still www.bikesocial.co.uk). Please email us on anything@frontendchatter.com or get us on that there Twitter using @SimonHbikes and @Mufga

Hello and welcome to Front End Chatter, and episode 56 brought to you in association with our pals at www.bikesocial.co.uk.

This week, between blackbird interruptions, we look back at the fallout from the spectacular Jerez MotoGP race – which isn’t the same as the Corby Grand Prix – including:

• race weekend perfection from Daniel Pedrosa
• Yamaha’s asymmetrical grip
• the world’s least safe safety car
• a last corner clash that failed to materialise
• the closest championship since 2009
• do the riders, premium athletes to a man, actually pop a can of Red Bull in parc fermé?
• the trials and tribulations of ex-Moto2 rider and sometime World Champ Danny Kent, who’s not from Kent

Plus – a re-evaluation of Ducati’s SuperSport, the merits of A2-licence friendly inline fours or parallel twins, and news of Avon’s new Spirit ST, their ‘hypertouring’ tyre.

Plus – some of your emails, including more of your best-looking non-sportsbikes, is speeding as socially unacceptable as drunk driving, who is General Zarco, what is the Kuiper Belt, is an MOT really necessary, what is defensive riding, how to fix a heavy throttle, and how to spot an idiot bike seller.

Thanks for listening, please support our friends at www.bikesocial.co.uk, and please email us on anything@frontendchatter.com

Welcome to Front End Chatter episode 55, powered by the good people at Bike Social (www.bikesocial.co.uk), where Simon and Martin discuss:

• MotoGP from Texas, where we got the first mouth-watering tease of a proper Marquez v Vinales MotoGP scrap during qualifying, only to have all our hopes and dreams cruelly snatched away during the race in a massive shower of disappointment.
• The great GP lost-and-found phenomenon, including Lorenzo losing his temper and finding it caught on multiple HD cameras (and other great racing tantrums of our time); Loris Baz losing the front and finding himself praised for it (and other great racing non-crashes of our time); and Valentino Rossi losing his piece of racetrack to General Zarco and finding himself handed a 0.3-second penalty (and whether any of this should have ever happened at all).
• British Superbikes from Brands Hatch Indy circuit, where a nice smart young man appeared to come of age (not to be confused with his race number), won two races, shattered a circuit record - and, sorry, who is he again?
• BMW's new HP4 Race - which may or may not have been developed through racing, may or may not be eligible for any racing, and may or may not ever actually be raced by anyone ever - and where it ranks on the Front End Chatter exoticometer.
• Plus all of your emails, including the morality of riding fast on the street, whether magazines encourage law-breaking, the hidden costs of BMW's bargain K1200LT, back-torque talk, the world's best sub-95bhp motorcycle, why radiators are where they are, yet more Honda build quality complaints, the very best-looking bikes of all time ever, plus loads more!

Thanks for listening, and please:

- Visit our current official home at www.bikesocial.co.uk

- Catch us on Twitter at @SimonHbikes and @Mufga

- Send any thinkings, feedback, complaints, abuse and self-serving compliments you like to anything@frontendchatter.com

Hello and welcome to Front End Chatter E54, brought to you as is our wont, by our friends at www.bikesocial.co.uk. 

Subjects for discussion in E54 include: 

• MotoGP from The Hot Springs Of the River Hondo circuit in Argentina – who won, who fell off, who thought they should've won, how many miles per gallon Cal Crutchlow gets from his RCV, and a whole bunch of nerdy stats including some so nerdy we can't actually work out what they mean

• World Snoozerbike from Aragon where <mumble>

• British Superbike from Donington Park

• plus some bikes we've ridden including a thorough review of KTM's revamped 390 Duke, and a less coherent mention of Honda's new Rebel, CB1100s and CBR and CB650F

• plus your emails, which is easily the best bit, including why no-one makes 750 sportsbikes, why Rea could become the most winningest rider ever in WSB this year, and why swapping a Daytona 955i for a Versys 650 is a good idea.

Thanks for listening, please visit www.bikesocial.co.uk to download FEC (or buy insurance from Bennetts), get hold of Martin and I on Twitter at:

@SimonHbikes and @Mufga

And please keep firing in those emails about anything you want to correct us on, or want us to find out for you, or... whatever you want. Email:
anything@frontendchatter.com

Thanks!

Welcome to Front End Chatter 53b – made possible by www.bikesocial.co.uk; go check them out! – and it’s a special FEC dedicated to answering, or failing to answer, your emails. Topics up for Front End Chattery include:

• what’s happened to the UK sportsbike market?

• do ex-police bikes make good winter hacks?

• why a BMW K1200LT is the best-value used bike out there

• the best set of one-piece leathers for under £600...

• ... and what should be worn under them?

• more headphone chat (that’s quite enough of that – Ed)

• what’s better: being faster or being safer?

• why MotoGP frames are hand-made and production bike frames aren’t

• is a Honda Varadero more comfy than a Pan European, and are they more comfy than a VFR800? And where does a CBF1000 fit in all this? (and what about a BMW K1200LT?) 

•  why there’s a TAT, might one day be a TET, but probably not a TIT or a TWAT

• more Honda heated grips gripes – and turns out it’s not just the Africa Twin that suffers

• more top five favourite bikes, and a few least favourite bikes... including Honda’s 929 Blade and Kawasaki’s 2007 Z750

• how to decode new bike launches, why they’re honest, and why context matters

Thank you very much for continuing to listen to our ramblings and thank you even more for contributing with your emails, thoughts and questions – all are welcome; if anything pops into your head, or if we can help, or you disagree with us, please write and tell us at:

Email:                    anything@frontendchatter.com

Twitter:                  @SimonHbikes and @Mufga

Visit our shop:         www.tshirtstudio.com/marketplace/front-end-chatter

FB:                         www.facebook.com/FrontEndChatter

And don’t forget, click on www.bikesocial.co.uk – then go buy insurance from Bennetts!*

*other insurance brokers are available, but they’re all the same with the lights out and, to be honest, with this one you get to help fund FEC!

Welcome to Front End Chatter Episode 53a, powered yet again by our friends at www.bikesocial.co.uk – and yes, it’s the first of two FECs; 53b will be along shortly. Or at least soon.

In the meantime, feast your ears on the will they, won’t they two-wheeled soap opera of Qatar MotoGP – including:

• how recording BT Sport in hi-def when you haven’t upgraded your package can result in missing the race
• the argument for and against remounting a crashed bike
• how Tech3 Yams (pronounced ‘Trois’, but don’t tell Simon) do well at Qatar until a certain Moto2 champion gets carried away
• disrespeculation about why Crutchlow crashed
• some nerdy stats about top speed
• what exactly Lorenzo is packing in his lunchbox
• plus chatter about World Superbike, World Supersports 600 and 300 at Aragon, and BSB at Donington – including a guest appearance by Martin Fitz-Guintoli...

We also say farewell to Sir John Surtees, have a quick tour around Suzuki’s new and rather wonderful V-Strom 650, the less new and less wonderful V-Strom, and chatter about the launch of the least powerful, least torquey, most heavieriest and most expensive Yamaha R6 ever which neither Martin or Simon attended, but about which they have an opinion anyway. Typical.

Thanks for listening, your emails will be answered in FEC53b, and please please please get in touch via:

email – anything@frontendchatter.com

Twitter – @SimonHbikes and @Mufga

Facebook – Front End Chatter

And, of course, please listen to FEC from our new home at www.bikesocial.co.uk

Chatter again soon!

Welcome to Front End Chatter, episode 52 – and it’s a very special episode of Britain’s least regular but much-loved motorcycling podcast because this is the first to be brought to you by the lovely people at

Bike Social (www.bikesocial.co.uk)!

 Front End Chatter is a podcast spoken at length by us, a right pair of motorcycle writers called Martin Fitz-Gibbons and Simon Hargreaves, and we chatter about every and any subject with two wheels and an engine: racing, news, new bikes, old bikes, and the issues that effect you, me and him (like what bike should you get next, how to ride, what kit to wear, and generally why things are the way they are). We don’t know all the answers (in fact we hardly know any of them) but we now people who do.

Bike Social – and if you’re not reading this on their website, WHY NOT? – is Britain’s most comprehensive biking website, packed with road test, new bikes, old bikes, features and news. It’s like a bike magazine, but on the web, created by Bennetts, the bike insurance people. Did I mention you can find it here: www.bikesocial.co.uk

So if you’re a long-time FEC listener, it’s good news because it means we’ll be coming in your ears twice a month.

 And if you’re a Bike Socialist, it means FEC will be brightening-up your browsing experience. We may even have a few other bits and bobs about the place after a while.

So, from now on, please get your Front End Chatter fix from www.bikesocial.co.uk – and it’s on with the chatter...

 This episode may contain nuts:

• MotoGP 2017 is nearly upon us, so we have look at the final test from Qatar and rate the chances of the major runners and riders courtesy of William Hill (other bookmakers are available)

• World Superbike, on the other hand, is underway and the burning question is: can the WSB racing from Thailand live up to the craziness of the opening Supersport 600 race from Phillip Island a few weeks ago?

• KTM 1290 Super Adventure v BMW R1200 GS Rallye Sport: we’ve been lucky enough ride both bikes recently – one in Portugal and one in Peru – so we compare our experiences and discover how one is genuinely capable off-road bike for novices while the other is one of the best road bikes in the world, in a frock. Plus, is semi-active suspension really ‘better’ than comparable standard suspension?

• more news on the Honda Africa Twin heated grip saga

• The best waterproof textile jacket and trouser combo for £400, with buying advice help from www.sportsbikeshop.co.uk

• why covering your bike in aftermarket tat isn’t the smartest idea

• why photochromic visors don’t go black faced with car headlights (it’s obvious)

• your five dream bikes

• why MotoGP bikes don’t have vacuum die-cast frames. Or do they?

Please send you questions and comment to: anything@frontendchatter.com

You can follow us on Twitter:

@SimonHbikes

@Mufga

Or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/FrontEndChatter

Thank you for listening, thank you for your support, please listen to us and download from Bike Social at:

www.bikesocial.co.uk

Say hello to Front End Chatter Episode 51, a numerically insignificant episode that nonetheless contains much chatterage about:

• the opening round of World Super Brits from Phillip Island – although if you haven’t seen the racing you’ll be none the wiser afterwards because we watched it and still manage to get the race result wrong not once, but twice...

• MotoGP testing from the very same Phillip Island at which, it seems, “They’re all going really fast...”

Plus!

• how Ducati’s new SuperSport is less sports tourer, more sportsbike

• why Kawasaki’s new Z900 is a 123bhp entry-level naked bike

• and why the new Ninja 650 is, er, an entry-level bike with a full fairing

And there’s more:

We read out your lovely emails on subjects as wide and wonderful as:

• the great hi-viz debate – to yellow or not to yellow

• bike security in London

• the wisdom of modifying modern sportsbikes

• a comparison of the average increase in rider skill v the increase in motorcycle performance

• the great Honda Africa Twin underperforming heated grip and corroding spokes problems – BOTH SOLVED! Ish.

• why some new bikes are released with obvious problems you’d think the factory would sort during testing

• what’s the better choice – a six-grand Triumph Daytona 675 or Suzuki GSX-R750?

• why we should argue more often (‘no we shouldn’t’, etc)

• why photochromic visors are a good idea

• how FEC is ‘helping’ native Spanish-speakers with their English comprehension

• Honda’s DCT v quickshifters

• what bikes do we prefer – riding older, nostalgic machines or sampling the new stuff, with modern technology?

• how oe fitment tyres are completely different to aftermarket tyres with the same name from the same manufacturer

As ever, we remain humbly grateful for your continued ears. Thanking youse!

You can get us on:

@SimonHbikes

@Mufga

 And please email anything@frontendchatter.com with whatever thoughts stray across your mind

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Welcome to Front End Chatter Episode 50 – yes, you’re not imagining it, it’s really real, and only a week after Episode 49.

Anyway, with next to no racing to chatter about, we’ve finally got round to answering all your emails (at least, the ones that had a question) – some from as far back as last September; sorry about that.

So, in some particular order, we natter about:

• Sportsbike luggage systems
• What will happen to production racing when there are no more production sportsbikes
• Why sports 600s are dying out
• The best headphones for on bike entertainment
• The perils of Hi-Viz
• An extremely long-winded and rambling piece about girls in bike sport
• Does size matter? (this is a different point)
• Why you only see Ducatis in the Ducati factory car park
• Who’s better – Rossi or Marquez?
• Why Honda’s Deauville is desirable
• The future of electric bikes
• A whole heap of buying advice for several FECers which always seems to end up in the recommendation of a Ducati Multistrada or a BMW R1200GS
• ...and much, much – some would say too much – more

Thanks for enduring this one – it’s a monster – and look forward to some exciting news regarding Front End Chatter in the near future.

Email:            anything@frontendchatter.com

Tweet:           @SimonHbikes

                     @Mufga

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Welcome to FEC49, finally – at least in the sense it’s been a long time coming, not in the conclusive sense. And, despite no actual racing to talk about, we find enough to fill half a podcast:

• Why MotoGP team launches are fake news – and, worse, they even have fake soundtracks

• Why testing is a pointless guide to the outcome of the season, but it’s worth taking notice of because it’s some motorbikes going round a track

• Crazy new World Superbike rules

• How BSB should fill a Supersport-sized gap with naked bikes and Moto2

• Who will be the busiest Aussie racer in 2017

• Why this year’s TT will be the best ever

• What that crazy Guy Martin has been saying about his TT comeback and why modern bikes are rubbish

PLUS! We have a few mini-reviews of some 2017 bikes, including:

• Kawasaki’s Z1000SX and why it’s better than before but has odd steering
• Ducati’s 950 Multistrada and why comparisons are odious
• Ducati’s sportier-for-2017 Monster 1200 S
• Suzuki’s perfectly nice but slightly ordinary GSX-S750
• Ducati’s properly off-road Desert Sled Scrambler

Thank you for bearing with us always, please keep emails coming, and we’ll read them out in FEC50...

...WHICH WE’RE RECORDING NEXT WEEK, WE PROMISE!

@SimonHbikes

@Mufga

anything@frontendchatter.com

www.frontendchatter.com