Front End Chatter

Hello and welcome to Front End Chatter Episode 72, Britain's most rambling, shambling biking podcast supported as ever by our gender-neutral comrades at www.bikesocial.co.uk  (and definitely *not* .com) in association with Bennetts, the bike insurance people. It's like a great big biking family, packed with road tests, new bikes, used bikes, buying guides and kit git guides; come in, the water's l...

Hello and welcome to Front End Chatter, Britain's mostest biking podcast, supported by nos amis at Britain's foremost and most comprehensive biking website, www.bikesocial.co.uk , and Bennetts , the bike insurance specialists. And in this week's compact episode Simon (me) and Martin (him) natter about such diverse matters as: the second darkest winter in northern Europe since records began results...

Hello and welcome to Front End Chatter Episode 70, the world's most eclectic motorcycling podcast, supported by www.biksocial.co.uk, the UK's most informed and entertaining website, and Bennetts, the bike insurance specialists.   My name is Simon and that man over there is Martin, and today we're nattering about:   the masochism of riding in winter, and whether a hot bath at the end of it is worth...

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 lengt...

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 MotoG...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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 ge...

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*...

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 finan...

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...

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 ridin...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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 fo...

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 r...

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...

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 Philli...

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 sy...

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 motor...