Show Notes
Hello and welcome to Episode 181 of Front End Chatter, Britain's most electric, eclectic and eccentric motorcycling podcast, presented by hoary old motorcycle journalists Simon Hargreaves and Martin Fitz-Gibbons. We are as ever indebted and in cahoots with Bennetts, Britain's leading bike insurance experts, and BikeSocial.co.uk. No flipping, don't change that channel – check out the offers, competitions and discounts Bennetts offer and become a BikeSocial member to access them all even if, for some reason beyond the wit of man, you aren't insured with Bennetts. Don't take our word for it – see for yourself.
However, speaking as someone who always fails to take advantage of money-saving offers because I'm hamstrung by a belief that paying less than full value is somehow morally wrong (I don't like using loyalty cards because why should a supermarket item be cheaper for someone who has a 'loyalty card' than for someone who hasn't? An item should cost what an item costs for every human in that shop, regardless of where they habitually grant their custom). Mind you I'm perfectly happy to stream football matches off an eastern European website, so figure that one out.
On this episode of Front End Chatter we have topics as widely varied as: • Triumph's new 660 Daytona and how middleweight sportsbikes now often less sporty than middleweight naked bikes • Triumph's addition of user-lowered rear preload on Tiger 1200s to make them more usable for more people of inversely advantaged verticality • why KTM's 890 Adventure R could be a forever bike, even if it doesn't last forever • proving a Zero electric bike can manage a day's adventure (including off-road) • and why every single commentator on YouTube, in print or on podcasts need their riding advice filtered through an 'it doesn't apply to me' filter – this stuff ain't Gospel, okay?
Anyway, that's enough for now because I'm on holiday and the wifi in the holiday cottage uploads at a prehistoric pace which, given I'm on the Jurassic Coast, is appropriate if not completely infuriating.
Please grace our inbox – [email protected] – with your thoughts, queries, jokes, funny stories and any random stuff that passes across your grey matter.
Catch me and him here: @SimonHbikes @Mufga
More from Front End Chatter
Hello, welcome everyone and eyes down for The Big FEC Quiz Of The Year! For the first time in 224 episodes of semi-popular pontification, rarely informed speculation and increasingly elaborate two-wheeled tangents, him Simon Hargreaves and him Martin Fitz-Gibbons finally stop pretending to know all the answers… and start asking the questions instead.
Hello and welcome to Front End Chatter, Britain's most celebratory biking podcast, currently marking the historic 223rd anniversary of the moment Simon Hargreaves and Martin Fitz-Gibbons opened up a small family firm manufacturing essential podcast components. After the original Chatter Manors was flattened by an implausibly large quantity of pancakes falling from the sky, the burgeoning business was brought under state control by the good folk at Bennetts, Britain's best motorcycle insurance brokers. If your bike insurance is due soon get yourself a quote direct at bennetts.co.uk - and if it isn't, then head instead to bikesocial.co.uk for all manner of two-wheeled news and reviews. Oh, and don't forget to check out Bennetts BikeSocial on The YouTubes, where a brand new season of The Great Escape To The Country - sorry, What Bike Next? - will be dropping soon. Anyhow. In this episode Si & Mufga chatter all about: Downsizing, and whether small bikes are the next big thing Why Langen's Lightspeed is the polar inverse of BMW's R1300GS Silently sneaking around the countryside on Stark's Varg EX Screen (extenders) if you want to go faster Whether bike security is a total waste of time More grey import goodness Endurance racing glory and probably some other stuff too! It's a (relatively) tight one this, clocking in at just over an hour [Thank goodness - All]. Thank you, as always, for listening - and for the lucky few, we'll see you on FEC's 2026 The Moors The Merrier tour very soon! Until then, keep on sending your thoughts, wonderings and ponderings to [email protected] Mwah
Hello and sorry and welcome to Front End Chatter, and episode 222 of the motorcycling podcast that may (or may not) owe you an apology. That grovelling worm is Martin Fitz-Gibbons, and that recalcitrant rascal is Simon Hargreaves. Having spent several months avoiding facing up to the monster they unwittingly (in both senses) created, they're back with two hours of unrehearsed waffle about all things biking. As always they'd like to atone for their two-wheeled transgressions to Bennetts, Britain's best motorcycle insurers, represented on the interwebs by both BikeSocial (bikesocial.co.uk) and BikeClub (bikeclub.bennetts.co.uk) – between them a bewilderingly big bonanza of motorcycling news, product reviews, used bike buying guides, industry expert advice and so much more.
Hello and welcome to Front End Chatter, the motorcycling podcast, and none other than Episode 221 – they said we couldn't do it, but we've naysayed the naysayers. His name is Martin Fitz-Gibbons, editor of Bike magazine, and my name isn't but that's not important right now – what's important is we thank Bennetts, Britain's best motorcycle insurers who put more back into biking than insurance companies who put less back into biking, and some of whom put nothing back but merely take take take. Good people one and all. And also uber-thanks to the bikesocial.co.uk, the world of wokecycling on the web and on the YouTubes, with loads of news, views, new bike launches and road tests – all the good stuff.
Hello and welcome to Front End Chatter, the podcast home of all things motorcycle-related, albeit tangentially sometimes, which, let's be honest, it's a slow news decade and we have to talk about something so why not just gossip? He's Martin Fitz-Gibbons and he's Simon Hargreaves, a pair of motorcycle content creators. And they're Bennetts, Britain's Best Bike Insurers, to whom we are all indebted, sometimes quite literally. And they're bikesocial.co.uk, where the web meets the world of bikes.