Front End Chatter Podcast Archive - Episodes 60 - 69

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 2 of… er lots).

Front End Chatter – Episode 60

Welcome to Front End Chatter E60, 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!

Front End Chatter – Episode 61

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. You can read Simon's full explanation of it here.

• 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 "middleweights" 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.

Front End Chatter – Episode 62

Episode #62 continues , and 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.

Front End Chatter – Episode 63

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).

Front End Chatter – Episode 64

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

Front End Chatter – Episode 65

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?

Front End Chatter – Episode 66

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!).

Front End Chatter – Episode 67

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.

Front End Chatter – Episode 68

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.

Front End Chatter – Episode 69

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 is 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 your thoughts, considerations and questions to: anything@frontendchatter.com

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.