Front End Chatter Podcast Archive – Episodes 100 - 109

We've had a rummage in the back of the cupboard and pulled out all those old editions of Front End Chatter that get pushed back there when the new one lands, brushed them down, tidied them up a bit and put them all together into one bumper page - the Front End Chatter Archive (Part 6 of… er lots).

Front End Chatter – Episode 100

Yes, this is the century, the big one-zero-zero, the 100-not-out, the five-score... and widely rumoured to be the last ever Front End Chatter podcast with him, Martin Fitz-Gibbons, and him, Simon Hargreaves, loins girded by the veritable cod-piece of motorcycling on the web, BikeSocial, and Bennetts, the bike insurance specialists.

And in this very special live-in-front-of-an-audience-in-the-canteen-at-Cadwell-Parkingtons (although Mufga sounds like he’s actually in the toilet; do we look like sound engineers?) we have:

• MotoGP from Red Bull Ring Pull in Austria in which Mark Marquez and Andrea Dovizioso swapped paint atoms until one of them won, and Johann Zarco agreed to a split at the end of the season with KTM – because obviously it won’t go any further south before then, will it?

• Yamaha’s Ténéré 700 and KTM 70 Adventure R on the MCN250 test route (but at a track day, we’re kinda preaching to the unconvertible)

• the best upgrade from a GSR750 for a bit more comfort and more miles

• what categories of bike are missing from the modern range, and what’s biking’s next big ‘thing’?

• are brake lever protectors or bark busters best for clipping car mirrors during filtering?

• what’s a Moto Morini Milano, and is it like a Triumph Hinckley or KTM Mattighofen?

• what’s our biggest biking disappointment?

• is the future of the TT safe? And was it safe in 1998?

• ...and much, much, a bit, more!

Thanks to everyone who came along to Cadwell to make the FECtacular truly special, and contributed to a small moment of something.

Front End Chatter – Episode 101

Hello and welcome to the podcast they said would never happen – 'they' being 'us' – yes, it's Front End Chatter E101 – the one hundred and one-est motorcycling podgasm in the world.

And thanks as ever to the munificent and mellifluous melodians of motorcycling, BikeSocial, and the brains behind the beauty, Bennetts the bike insurance specialists.

In E101 we have:

• our biking Room 101s (as suggested by Mian Cowell but whom I suspect we forgot to credit!) including:

• Steppenwolf

• Polite vests

• riding certificates

• the good old days

• PR

• track tyre pressure obsession

• moaning about other riders' kit

• plus! all the fact -free opinions from Silverstone MotoGP (which, yes, seems like a long time ago but was only last weekend ffs)

• opinion about new bikes, including Triumph's Daytona 765, Honda's 1100 Africa Twin, and Triumph's Tiger 900... and a radical guess at Suzuki's 2020 range... 

• plus #2 – emails on topics as diverse as:

• helmet HUDs

• heated visors

• how a KTM 1290 and 1050 have the same gearing apart from top gear

• best sub-500cc second bike for a short all-year commute

• why learning to ride in your 30s might save biking

• what are wire crash barriers all about? 

• best underwear for hot weather and long distances

All this and much more, so give FEC a go!

Front End Chatter – Episode 102

Anyway – here are Simon and Martin, Making Britain's Biking Podcasts Great Again, with special thanks and appreciation to BikeSocial, the one-stop shop (except, er, it's free) for all your bang-up-to-date biking news, views and reviews (not sure that works). And of course thanks also the Bennetts, the bike insurance specialists, for their continued loveliness and support. Hugs.

And on FEC102 (stop it!) we have:

• how motorcyclists get in the way

• slightly tardy but nonetheless entertaining flashback to the Misano MotoGP in which Marquez and Rossi renew an old on-track friendship and Jorge Lorenzo falls out of friendship with Honda (recorded literally milliseconds before General Zarco got dumped by KTM)

• a new Harley ridden by Martin in that America they have now

• have you ever lost the passion for bikes or riding?

• what's the worst bike of the last 10 years?

• should we record another FEC LIVE at the NEC bike show?

• is there any other racing besides road racing, and why speedway is a good night out

• is poor marketing to blame for the drop in numbers of young riders?

• are seats less comfy than they used to be?

• which matters more: smiles-per-gallon or engine size?

• what's the best bit of Scotland to ride?

...all this and more!

Front End Chatter – Episode 103

And what a rambling podcast we have this week, only tangentially about motorbikes but also talking in topics such as:

• MotoGP from Aragon, with how the winning bike was second slowest, how Bradley Smith beat a factory Honda and what happens to all the “New World Champion” T-shirts that are made for riders who don’t end up winning them

• Jonathan Rea’s fifth WSB title proves a knife can win in a gunfight if the guy with the gun shoots himself in the foot – or unless he’s actually shot in the foot by a CEO with a Photoshopped head, then takes the money and runs onto a Fireblade

• news of Honda’s 2020 Africa Twin, including how it’s different from last year’s bike up to and down to lower seat height, more power, fancier gadgets and electric springs – and how much it’ll all cost

• plus gossip about the 2020 Triumph Street Triple, Kawasaki’s supercharged naked, BMW’s new S1000XR, F850GT and 850R, remote-controlled KTMs

• whether Ewan and Charlie’s ride across South America on Harley-Davidson Livewires is the most fascinating thing ever or a total irrelevance and, really, who cares? Answers on the back of a TV script please

• plus loads more nonsense about

  • how to do 200mph on the cheap

  • more motorcycling Room 101 topics (and a few disagreements!)

  • what can replace a KTM 990 SuperDuke?

  • what’s the best litre sportsbike replacement for a 2010 S1000RR?

  • how to chainsaw braches on a fallen tree and why a Husqvarna won’t run on mineral two-stroke....

• ...and much, much more of the same.

Thank you for listening, thank you for joining in with the conversation by emailing your thoughts, questions, considerations and jokes to anything@frontendchatter.com

Front End Chatter – Episode 104

So it’s a really simple FEC this week: bit of racing, then a metric tonne of new bike news, conjecture, comment and opinion – including: 

• Aprilia’s RS660, Tuono and Tuareg

• BMW’s F900XR

• Ducati’s Streetfighter V4

• Harley’s Pan Am

• Honda’s Blade and Africa Twin

• Husqvarna’s Denis concept

• Kawasaki’s Z H2 and Z1000SX

• KTM’s 390 Adventure, 890 Duke R and 890 Adventure. Um...

• Suzuki’s lovely, lovely, lovely DR Big 1050

• Triumph’s... er... hello? Hello?

• Yamaha’s Tracy 7

We ramble on for so long we run out of time for the FEC sack so apologies if it’s not a vintage episode, but at least it makes FEC105 a bit of a no-brainer.

Front End Chatter – Episode 105

And on E105 we have: 

• Motorcycle Live round-up – what we thought of Honda’s Blade, Kawasaki’s Z H2, Ducati’s Streetfighter, Triumph’s Rocket and Suzuki’s V-Big Strom, and what we didn’t think of Aprilia’s RS660, Husqvarna’s Denis and BMW’s R1800 concept because they weren’t there...

• goodbye to Jorge Lorenzo, a ‘complicated’ champion

• goodbye to Karel Abraham, with a ‘complicated’ exit

• hello to Alex, brother of Marc. Can’t see that ending well

• Plus a super-massive FEC-sack including...

• what is it with Ducati and cam belts?

• is Aprilia’s CapoNord an alternative to Ducati’s Multistrada 1200?

• leathers v textiles for commuting, and the best options for wearing over office clothes

• is your bike a shrinker or a grower?

• what happened to normal-sized tail units?

...and much, much, too much more.

Front End Chatter – Episode 106

And in this fab, decidedly non-Xmassy, episode we have:

• relatively informed but mostly speculative chatter about Triumph’s new Tiger 900, including probably far too much thinking about its innovative T-bone crank – explained in an aural medium with the help of a drum machine

• Guy Martin off that telly they have now recreates a half century-old movie stunt by jumping a Triumph over a fence in Austria. Or Bavaria. They all look the same with your eyes shut. Which he probably did when he landed

• the pros and cons of riding a pair of premium litre sportsbikes on the road in December

• more of your FEC-sack emails, including subjects as varied as magazines making up letters, does size matter when it comes to riding style, and being gear-shamed in public

Front End Chatter – Episode 107

And in this fab, decidedly retrospective episode we have: 

• under-achieving factory Aprilia rider Andrea Iannone is in trouble with the FIM after a urine sample is found to contain performance-enhancing drugs. Mr Iannone is understood to be seeking a refund from his dealer under the Consumer Rights Act

• as the year crawls to its conclusion like a slug looking for the exit sign, FEC goes back 12 months to watch ourselves gazing into our crystal balls and compares what we thought we’d be saying then to, er, now...

• ...and as the decade grinds to a crushing defeat we also look back at the trends and changes we’ve seen in motorcycling over the last ten years, the look forward to what’s to come in the next ten...

• plus more of your FEC-sack emails, including subjects as varied as helmets turning to cork, possibly thanks to corrosive perspiration, and/or adding a Best Before date to the lining, sat navs v smart phones part deux, semi-active Fireblade Öhlins v upgrading suspension, why some endurance race bikes have yellow headlights and much much more....

Thanks for listening, you’ve still been wonderful. Props to my man at BikeSocial – a tumescent repository of motorcycling wisdom – and Bennetts, whose insurance superstardom continues to include money off at a whole load of suppliers from Halfords to Halvarssons, on top of goodness knows what else. 

Front End Chatter – Episode 108

Hello, welcome and feel free, literally, to feast your aurals on Front End Chatter, A Most Biking Podcast, with this being Episode 108 delivered in a stream of barely comprehensible noughts and ones directly into your earballs courtesy of the UK's most celebratory biking website, BikeSocial and Bennetts, the number one and ONLY place to get your bike insurance because they actually put something back into biking, including this podcast, unlike certain other so-called 'motorcycle' insurance companies who are all just take, take, take. Yeah. You know it, brother..

Simon and Martin's scrambled thinking this week includes: 

• the fall-out from Andrea Weeannone's B sample* 
  *warning, may contain drug references and mild ridicule

• the fall-out from Guy Martin's court case – oh, hang on, there is none...

• the fall-out from a certain Donington Castle-based motorcycle manufacturer facing a winding-up order if their tax bill isn't paid pronto...

• more of your emails, thoughts, comment, queries and questions drawn from all four corners of the globe and placed in the mighty FEC sack... ...hang on, a globe hasn't got corners.

Front End Chatter – Episode 109

Aaaaand on this edition of FEC we have:

• no news to speak of because the last FEC was plenty newsy enough thanks

• a patchy film review of 1917 – Kermode & Mayo we are not

• what we’ve both been up to, including riding around the Peaks on a 2020 Africa Twin, and a visit to Triumph’s splendid museum at Hinckley...

• a look at the state of UK biking in 2019: what’s selling and what isn’t

• gossip about Ducati’s V4 Superleggera

• a rant about the irrelevance of quoting dry weight figures instead of wet weight figures... in fact, taking any manufacturers’ quoted figures as gospel and repeating them, parrot-fashion, without question. And does it even matter?

• FEC sack emails on a wonderful variety of topics such as:

• protective clothing standards and the merits of textiles v leather

• the return of two-stroke to MotoGP

• snowflakes

• how to deal with mansplaining

• motorcycling dead ends and missed opportunities

• long legs and webbed toes

...and much, much more.

If you’d like to chat about this article or anything else biking related, join us and thousands of other riders at the Bennetts BikeSocial Facebook page.