Front End Chatter

• Front End Chatter #211

  Hello and welcome (and a special hello and welcome to Adam Danger, who reads this 'sometimes')... to Episode 211 of Front End Chatter, the motorbicycling podcast prefrontally-lobotomised by Simon Hargreaves and Martin Fitz-Gibbons, two motorcycle journalists who've been doing since their own, personal Day Ones.  We are, as always and hopefully forever, in debt to and grateful for the patronage of Bennetts, Britain's Best Bike Insurers – FACT – and bikesocial.co.uk, the bestest and brightest biking website and YouTube channel, amen.  And on the pod this time around the sun, we have:  • news of BMW's R1300 R  • how to make BMW's £25k R1300 GSA better for £9.99 (with thanks to Neil at NJW Moto YouTube) • Yamaha's half fuel, half battery hybrid MT-09 • KTM in more trouble • Triumph's smashing super smart updated Trident and Tiger Sport 660s  Plus emails and missives from you, dear FEC listener, including a spectacular rant from Martin – bit of a collector's item. Thank you very much for listening, look forward to seeing some of you on the forthcoming FEC Highland Flings (have I mentioned we're going ON HOLIDAY!)... ..oh, and please send your emails, questions, queries, thoughts, ponderings, which bike should you buy next to:  [email protected] Chars!

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• Front End Chatter #210

  Hello you lovely FECers you, and welcome to Episode 210 of the long-running, will-it-never-end, Front End Chatter podcast for motorcycles and motorcyclists, spoken out loud by Simian Hardgleaves and Marsupial Fatz-Domino.  We are, as ever, indebted and beholden unto Lord Bennetts, Britannia's Best Bike Insurers and may his whaling fleet never run out of blubber, and bikesocial.co.uk, the hostess with the mostess, you know, you know... the one that goes up to 11.  And on this month's episode we have, among many other things:  • a bit of gen on Honda's Hornet 1000 and SP, including how much a piston costs and how many years' warranty you get • who Ixion was, what he has to do with Canon Basil H Davies, and why his 1279 miles in 1905 on a Triumph came to be repeated in 2025... • a game of 'If bikes were family members...' • you know what, it's so long ago I've already forgotten but it's jam-packed with yummy goodness, trust me, I should know.  Get him and he on the socials:  @Mugfa @SimonHBikes (or something like that) And please email your missives and massives to [email protected] Does anyone actually ever read this? 

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• Front End Chatter #209

  Hello and welcome to Front End Chatter, and it's episode 209 of the 209 episode-long motorcycling podcast presented, and I use the word in its loosest sense, by Martina Fitz-Gibbons and Simone Hargreaves, a pair of transitioning motorcycle journalists whose personal pronouns are 'it'. Fronty End Prongs is supported and comported by Bennetts, Britain's biggest and best bike insurers, and without whom you would all be pretty bloody sorry, I can tell you, so make the most of their offers and support their support of motorcycling ya ingrates. And also BikeSocial.co.uk, the hub of motorcycling's metaphorical Akront rim, with their Youtube channel and website and lots of bike-related content to tuck into. So on this episode of FEC we chatter about:  • the latest news from the ailing KTM factory • bad news from the Nürburgring • last-minute booking news if you're thinking about coming to ride with us in Scotland in May on the FEC Highland Fling 2 tour • a ride on Ducati's Multistrada V2 S and exactly how Ducati is it?  • Honda's new NT1100 and what have they done to it?  • Honda's new Hornet and wow, how good is it?  • Honda's last-ever CB1300 and can I have one please?  • why a 270° parallel twin is rarely an exciting engine • how to describe engine configurations • and many more musing and amusings from the FEC Sack of your thoughts, queries, ruminations on a theme Thank you for listening and supporting us with your ears, and please email your own thoughts and musings to: [email protected] Thanks again FECers!  @Simonhbikes @Mufga

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• Front End Chatter #208

  FEC208  Hello moi luverly FECers and this, believe it or not, is Front End Chatter episode 208 in a long-running series with him, believe it or not, Martin Fitz-Gibbons, and him, believe it or not, Simon Hargreaves.   Believe it or not, you should get your bike insurance from Bennetts, Britain’s best bike insurers and supporters of Front End Chatter since 1894, with massive range of savings and offers on all sorts of kit and caboodle, plus lots of cool policy add-ons like 90 days EU cover and common mods (like road legal exhausts) covered – as standard! And you also get free BikeSocial membership (which you can also buy for £60 regardless of your insurer), which gives you access to all the above offers and savings, plus VIP experiences, cheap track days; the list goes on. And don’t forget to visit bikesocial.co.uk and their Youtube channel for all your biking media consumption needs.  And – last few rooms remaining on the FEC Highland Fling 2 – yes, ride Scotland’s greatest hits this May with Simon and Martin, enjoying the best of the NC500, the best of the West Coast, and a romp through the Cairngorms, all while staying at the Aultguish Inn and partaking of libation in the evening. The dates for Fling 2 are arrival Thursday May 6th, departure Sunday May 10th. Visit bit.ly/fecfling2 for more info, or email [email protected] or Paul at MCI Tours – [email protected]  And on that note, what’s actually in the podcast? I’d tell you but, honestly, on this occasion it’s easier to just listen! Email [email protected] with your thoughts and queries and stuff, and get Martin and Simon on some of the social medias: Insta:MufgaSimonhbikes BSky: @sihbikes.bsky.social @mufga.bsky.social    

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• Front End Chatter #207

  Hello and welcome to Front End Chatter, Britain’s physics-bendingiest motorcycling podcast, a vision formed when eccentric inventors Simon Hargreaves and Martin Fitz-Gibbons slipped off a toilet seat and banged their heads on a sink. This is episode #207 which, as always, is powered by the suitcase of stolen plutonium that is Bennetts, the bike insurance specialists, and BikeSocial.co.uk, the first ​place you should point your browser for used-bike buying guides, in-depth product reviews, new-bike technical analysis, the week’s hotted two-wheels deals, plus so much more.   And this week, in the absence of much going on in the biking world (other than Simon squeezing Christmas lunch into the panniers of a Triumph Tiger, and Mufga squeezing Christmas lunch into himself several times over), FEC takes a twenty-year trip back in time, back to January 2005, or more specifically the January 2005 issue of Bike magazine. A time when Britain was obsessed with sportsbikes, when Mufga was obsessed with dataloggers, and when Simon was obsessed by Troy Lee decals. How times have changed.   Come between the covers with us (ahem) as Simon and Mufga spill the goss on how Britain’s biggest-selling bike magazine was cobbled together 20 years ago, including:   •     Yamaha’s MT-01 – what it was, why it was made, whether it was a flop, and why Si had to push one down a hill •     KTM’s 990 Super Duke – why it came with the rudest promo video ever, and whether it’d take KTM from unknowns to the biggest brand in Europe •     Yamaha YZF-R6 – why a new set of forks and brakes made Si visit a burger van in the Peak District •     Ducati Monster S2R – why it made Mufga bar-hop through Monte Carlo, and why a WSB legend flicked the Vs at Chippy Wood, Bike’s own legend •     Plus the creeping rise of nostalgia in motorcycling; one of the ugliest group tests ever put on paper; the questionably relevance of riding MotoGP bikes; and a plethora of predictions gone horribly wrong.   We hope you enjoy our spectacularly self-indulgent trip down memory lane. If you do, let us know which era we should revisit next by emailing [email protected] – and if you don’t, then instead email us with your thoughts, questions, observations, wonderings, ponderings about all things two-wheeled, modern or historical, for us to waffle about this year.   Thank you for listening, and we hope to see you in Scotland on FEC Highland Fling (#1 & #2) in May, and/or the FECstival in October!   Follow us on the socials:   Bluesky @sihbikes.bsky.social @mufga.bsky.social   Instagram @simonhbikes @mufga

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