Hello and welcome to Front End Chatter, Britain's Best Biking Podcast presented by 'Fox Mulder' Hargreaves and 'Dana Scully' Fitz-Gibbons – because, spookily, this is FEC Episode 218; exactly the same number of episodes as TV's The X-Files. Except it's not spooky at all because it's not a coincidence. It's inevitable there's a TV show with exactly 218 episodes, and it's the X-Files; if we waited until FEC 219 to make the connection, it would be the same number of episodes as the original ABC run of the American improvisational comedy series Whose Line Is It Anyway? Insert your own joke here.

And thanks as always to our benevolent benefactors Bennetts, Britain's Best Bike insurers, and bikesocial.co.uk, the website/YouTube channel for all your biking needs. And remember to become a BikeSocial Member – it's automatic if you're insured with Bennetts, or it's £60 per year or £6 per month if not. But it means you get access to loads of competitions, offers and money-off deals on a veritable panoply of kit – basically, if you're thinking of buying anything for your bike, check to see if it's on the list; you might be able to save more than the cost of membership.

For a list of current offers and discounts, visit rewards.bennetts.co.uk/categories

Right, on with the show, and this week Simon and Martin natter about:

• Triumph's new Trident 800
• Ducati's new Monster
• Kawasaki's new KLE500
• Honda's new CB1000F
• Yamaha's new Ténéré 700 World Raid

Plus
• BMW R1300 GSA v RS v RT, and the merits of riding 600 miles for one photo
• Has motorcycling got too easy; if you don't have to earn it, is it worth anything?
• What's it like riding Honda's RC213V-S in 2025?
• Riding 'signatures'
• What's the easiest engine to work on?
• And loads of other hot air and nonsense

Thanks for listening, please tell your motorcycling pals and spread the FEC message of love, hope, friendship and riding as far and fast as possible at all times...
And please continue to grace the inbox and anything@fronteendchatter.com with your thoughts, questions, queries and general bantz.

Aye. Carry on.

Hello everyone and welcome to THE 2025 FECSTIVAL – live from the beautiful Buccleuch Arms Hotel in stunning, sun-drenched (cough, ish, ahem) Moffat, Scotlandshire!

After a couple of fantastic (truth), incident-free (truth-ish) and bone-dry (truth-adjacent) days riding through the very best of the Scottish Borders and the Galloway Forest, Front End Chatter – Britain's best biking podcast – has retired to the bar for a small sweet sherry, a roaring radiator, and 43 minutes of inspired, improvised, impromptu biking banter and deep-drivel discussions including:

• Marc Marquez's ninth (or is it seventh?) world championship, if his comeback really is the greatest return ever witnessed across the near-infinite history of sporting achievement, and whether MotoGP's new owners are trying to control our collective thoughts
• Witnessing hostility towards Chinese-branded bikes thaw in real time, the reasons we're starting to be interested (b£¥ond the obviou$), and how soon before the first one is part of a FEC tour
• Nominations for the greatest, must-ride, can't-miss riding roads in all of mainland continental Europe, especially if the definition of 'mainland continental Europe' now includes the UK and a bit of America…
• Could electric bikes be the future of trackdays? Simon & Mufga's mixed fortunes with electric bikes on track. And could Front End Chatter's future lie in someone's fuel tank?
• Radical suggestions for reorganising bike ergonomics and controls, featuring foot clutch, backwards-action left-hand throttle and bum brake
• The perfect bike for when you're retiring to live in Japan

Thank you FECers one and all - and to Paul, Jo and Anthea at MCi Tours - for joining us at the 2025 FECstival, either live and in person or via time-travelling earholes. And, of course, sincerest gratitudes as ever to Bennetts, Britain's best bike insurers, for continuing to enhance, advance and romance Front End Chatter – don't forget to get a quote direct from Bennetts the next time your motorcycle insurance is up for renewal, then be sure to buy your policy direct so you can enjoy more than 100 offers, discounts and exclusive opportunities all thanks to a year's free BikeSocial membership!

Ciao for now – and maybe see you at Motorcycle Live in November…

Aye, wotcha, marnin', welcome to Front End Chatter, wiv him, Simon Fitz-Martin, and him Hargreaves Gibbons, a reet pair of motorcycle journalists speaking into a wizardy recording device for the 216th time of asking, except nobody is. You get what you deserve.

Massive thanks to Bennetts, Britain's Best bike insurers, and bikesocial.co.uk, for their support of this podcast, and seemingly limitless reserves of patience and understanding at this most trying of times (and we really are trying).

And on this week's FEC (which week is that exactly?) we have:
• why Triumph's 2025 Speed Triple RS has got us so excited we're figuratively and, in Simon's case literally, standing to attention
• why Kawasaki's Ninja 1100SX SE Tourer is a genuine contender for 'Sports Tourer of 2025" as if that's an actual thing, which it isn't, really
• why Yamaha's Tracer 7 GT is a genuine contender for "Sports Tourer of 2025 under 1000cc" as if that's also an actual thing, which it also isn't, also really
• why BMW's R1300 RT is more like a sports tourer, with a longer tank range and as long as you don't do more than 400 miles in a day
• how journalists have tested the patience of manufacturers (how many fingers have you got?)
• why CFMoto's 450 MT is about to take over the world
All this and not much more, come on, it was gone 9pm when we finished and I needed a lie down with a stiff one, it might not be the most physically demanding job but I don't remember that last time a plumber had to compromise his principles quite as often. Dahling.

Right, enough, go away, but not before you've summoned your thoughts, musings, queries, questions and hilarious stories of motorcycling mishaps and mayhem and committed them to an email to:
anything@frontendchatter.com

We remain your effervescent amis

Simon H
Mufga

Ride yer bike. You know it makes very little sense.

Hello and welcome to Front End Chatter, and it's episode 215 of the long-running motorcycling podcast with him, Martin Fitz-Gibbons, and him, Simon Hargreaves – and immense thanks as always to the ever-supportive Bennetts, Britain's best-by-miles bike insurer, and the magnificent bikesocial.co.uk, the website with all your info on the latest new bikes, used bikes, classic bikes, news, reviews and product tests.

Right, on with the show – and, today, we're in for a reborn, reinvented, reimagined, reincarnated treat... because:

• Suzuki's GSX-R1000R is back, baby, for 2026 – and we have all the details, hot off the emails from Hamamatsu: power, weight, colours and tech. You can read about it elsewhere – but you can only hear about it, er, here

• KTM are back, baby – details of production starting again in Austria; the what, the when, and the how many

• BSA's Bantam is back, baby – yes, after only half a century, the owners of BSA, Mahindra, decide to resurrect the name for their new 334cc single roadster, as a direct rival to Honda's GB350S
• and of course the FECsack is back, baby – more musings, ponderings and queries from you lot to us lot about that lot

Thanks for listening, please email your own compositions and questions and congratulations to Mufga on his new job to:

anything@frontendchatter.com – and we'll do our best to read them out.

Thank ee again, and see you on the backside, baby!

Hello and welcome to Front End Chatter, Britain's crumbliest, flakiest motorcycling podcast, brought to you by the hapless hackery of Simon Hargreaves and Martin Fitz-Gibbons, nattering endlessly on and on and on anon. We are, as always, scrutineered and scrutinised by Bennetts, Britain's Best Bike Insurer, and bikesocial.co.uk (don't need the www, but try telling legacy media that).

And this month (as it turns out) on FEC, we witter about:
• Suzuki's new GSX-S8T and TT (cue schoolboy giggling)
• CCM going bust
• Dainese in debt
• global bike sales doing well, but not so much in Europe or North America, a pretty awful in the UK
• why automatic gearboxes are the opposite of a guitar solo

Plus much more, well, a bit...

Thank you for lending us your ears, and please keep you thoughts, musings, machinations and queries to:
anything@frontendchatter.com

Love ya!

Hello dearest ear-owners and welcome to Front End Chatter, source of the most significant soundwaves in British motorcycling since the feral howl of a raging Norton rotary haunted the quiet coastal village of Kirk Michael, or since the words "Go on then, I'll 'ave it" slipped breathlessly from the lips of a Derbyshire-born property developer attending the auction of a defunct motorcycle factory.

In this aural delight of an episode, Simon and Mufga regale themselves with a recap of the spectacularly special Highland Fling tours (so good they did them twice), along with:

• Loadsa goss about Triumph's Tiger Sport 800 and BMW's R1300GS Adventure having covered 3000 miles apiece
• Why MotoGP might be getting interesting again, and why the TT continues to fascinate every corner of the country for more than a century
• The forced-induction fabulousness that was the Bennetts Supercharged Showdown, where 50-plus Kawasaki H2 owners took over an empty runway
• Simon gets a taste of Ducati's £16,000 Streetfighter V2S
• Martin gets a taste of Voge's £6,000(ish) DS625X
• The latest facts, news, rumours and baseless speculation regarding Bajaj's takeover of KTM, and what it might mean for the future
• FECsack correspondence covering classic sports-tourers for young riders, the dubious bargains of Facebook Marketplace, how media gets hold of the bikes they test, bikes with undeserved reputations, the best British five-day biking tour, and more…

Thank you, one and all, for continuing to allow us to tickle your tympanic membranes - and enormously gigantical appreciations to Bennetts, Britain's best bike insurers. Be sure to get a quote direct from Bennetts the next time you need motorcycle insurance, and be even more sure to check out bikesocial.co.uk for all the best bike news and product reviews on the interwebs.

Continue to catch him and the other one on the socials (@simonhbikes & @mufga or something like that), and let us know where to take future FEC tours on anything@frontendchatter.com

Until next time!

Awrite hens and laddies, and welcome to a very special episode of Front End Chatter presented, ingested and recorded LIVE at the Highland Fling tour(s) in bonnie, sunny (no, really) Scotland!

With not a lot to discuss in the world of motorcycling at the moment - other than the uncertain future of one of Europe's biggest bike manufacturers, plus a raft of new flagship models revealed by another of Europe's biggest bike manufacturers - our fabulous FECers have boldly stepped into our creative breach.

Episode #212 is a Live FECsack extravaganza, with a wealth of wicked wonderings wittered by Highland Fling tourists spaken in the vague direction of Simon McHargreaves and Martin McFitz-Gibbons, including but not limited to…

• Does the rise of Chinese bikes mean certain doom for European brands?
• What effect will US tariffs have on motorcycling?
• Can KTM repair its reputation - and who would we pick to run it going forwards?
• What substance, material or concept should power motorcyclings's future?
• If you could only ride one road for the rest of your life, which would it be?
• And what would you ride it on?
• What's all the fuss about two-strokes?
• What would be the least-enjoyable bike to ride the Highland Fling on?
• Risk - what is it, why do we take it, and how much do we try to avoid it?
• What would be the best bike for Mufga and Si to ride two-up to Gdańsk?

Thanks to everyone for the fabulous questions!

Speaking of thanks, our recognition, acknowledgement and gratitudes are, as always, directed to Bennetts, Britain's best bike insurers, and BikeSocial.co.uk, home to all the very best motorcycling news and reviews.

Plus our enormous, heartfelt appreciation to Paul at MCi Tours - mcitours.com - for all his graft in taking charge of the grown-up logistics that enabled the FEC Highland Fling tours to happen. Thank you, Papa Smurf, sorry you couldn't make it, and see you in September!

Right, that's it, we're outta here, dinner's calling. Regular service resumes soon(ish) so please keep your emails coming in to anything@frontendchatter.com

Guid cheerio the nou!

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:
anything@frontendchatter.com

Chars!