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!

Hello you lovely FECers you, and welcome to Episode 210 of the long-running, will-it-never-end, Front End Chatter podcast for motorcycles and motorcyclists, spoken out loud by Simian Hardgleaves and Marsupial Fatz-Domino.

We are, as ever, indebted and beholden unto Lord Bennetts, Britannia's Best Bike Insurers and may his whaling fleet never run out of blubber, and bikesocial.co.uk, the hostess with the mostess, you know, you know... the one that goes up to 11.

And on this month's episode we have, among many other things:
• a bit of gen on Honda's Hornet 1000 and SP, including how much a piston costs and how many years' warranty you get
• who Ixion was, what he has to do with Canon Basil H Davies, and why his 1279 miles in 1905 on a Triumph came to be repeated in 2025...
• a game of 'If bikes were family members...'
• you know what, it's so long ago I've already forgotten but it's jam-packed with yummy goodness, trust me, I should know.

Get him and he on the socials:
@Mugfa
@SimonHBikes (or something like that)

And please email your missives and massives to anything@frontendchatter.com

Does anyone actually ever read this?

Hello and welcome to Front End Chatter, and it's episode 209 of the 209 episode-long motorcycling podcast presented, and I use the word in its loosest sense, by Martina Fitz-Gibbons and Simone Hargreaves, a pair of transitioning motorcycle journalists whose personal pronouns are 'it'. Fronty End Prongs is supported and comported by Bennetts, Britain's biggest and best bike insurers, and without whom you would all be pretty bloody sorry, I can tell you, so make the most of their offers and support their support of motorcycling ya ingrates. And also BikeSocial.co.uk, the hub of motorcycling's metaphorical Akront rim, with their Youtube channel and website and lots of bike-related content to tuck into.

So on this episode of FEC we chatter about:
• the latest news from the ailing KTM factory
• bad news from the Nürburgring
• last-minute booking news if you're thinking about coming to ride with us in Scotland in May on the FEC Highland Fling 2 tour
• a ride on Ducati's Multistrada V2 S and exactly how Ducati is it?
• Honda's new NT1100 and what have they done to it?
• Honda's new Hornet and wow, how good is it?
• Honda's last-ever CB1300 and can I have one please?
• why a 270° parallel twin is rarely an exciting engine
• how to describe engine configurations
• and many more musing and amusings from the FEC Sack of your thoughts, queries, ruminations on a theme

Thank you for listening and supporting us with your ears, and please email your own thoughts and musings to:
anything@frontendchatter.com

Thanks again FECers!

@Simonhbikes
@Mufga

FEC208

Hello moi luverly FECers and this, believe it or not, is Front End Chatter episode 208 in a long-running series with him, believe it or not, Martin Fitz-Gibbons, and him, believe it or not, Simon Hargreaves.

Believe it or not, you should get your bike insurance from Bennetts, Britain’s best bike insurers and supporters of Front End Chatter since 1894, with massive range of savings and offers on all sorts of kit and caboodle, plus lots of cool policy add-ons like 90 days EU cover and common mods (like road legal exhausts) covered – as standard!

And you also get free BikeSocial membership (which you can also buy for £60 regardless of your insurer), which gives you access to all the above offers and savings, plus VIP experiences, cheap track days; the list goes on. And don’t forget to visit bikesocial.co.uk and their Youtube channel for all your biking media consumption needs.

And – last few rooms remaining on the FEC Highland Fling 2 – yes, ride Scotland’s greatest hits this May with Simon and Martin, enjoying the best of the NC500, the best of the West Coast, and a romp through the Cairngorms, all while staying at the Aultguish Inn and partaking of libation in the evening.

The dates for Fling 2 are arrival Thursday May 6th, departure Sunday May 10th. Visit bit.ly/fecfling2 for more info, or email anything@frontendchatter.com or Paul at MCI Tours – info@mcitours.com

And on that note, what’s actually in the podcast? I’d tell you but, honestly, on this occasion it’s easier to just listen!

Email anything@frontendchatter.com with your thoughts and queries and stuff, and get Martin and Simon on some of the social medias:

Insta:
Mufga
Simonhbikes

BSky:
@sihbikes.bsky.social
@mufga.bsky.social

HOT NEWS! The FEC Highland Fling is here!

Yes folks, come ride with Simon and Martin in Scotland in May 2025 – we've booked an entire hotel in the heart of the Highlands as a base for three days of riding the most stunning loops around the most iconic routes in the UK. It's majestic, it's mind-blowing, it's the best riding – and the best hospitality – you'll get in 2025.

The FEC Highland Fling starts with a grand ride-in on Friday 2nd May through Glen Coe up to the hotel near Garve. After an evening of greetings and meetings, we'll spend the next three days exploring the finest roads and scenery Scotland has to offer – the north coast, west coast, and across to the Cairngorms, talking in all the Highland hits along the way. And, on the final night (Monday 5th May), Martin and Simon will host a special live episode of Front End Chatter.

To register your interest in the FC Highland Fling, please send an email to anything@frontendchatter.com titled "I'm interested in the FEC Highland Fling, please send me more info."

We look forward to seeing you in Scotland in May!

Meanwhile....

Hello and welcome to E206 of Front End Chatter, the UK's most Christmassy (he means 'Festive' – Ed) motorcycling podcast, brought to you gift-wrapped in last week's MCN by Simon Humbug Hargreaves and Martin Ho Ho Ho Fitz-Gibbons, supported as ever by the bike insurance baubles at Bennetts, and their multimedia minions at BikeSocial.co.uk. Get your insurance with Bennetts because their industry-wide offers and discounts will pay you back big time in 2025. Become a BikeSocial Member, take advantage, get involved, come to a discounted trackday and keep your eyes on your inbox for amazing events with which you can get involved.

And on this week's FEC we have:
• our fave bikes of 2024 (and a few of 2025)
• more KTM woes, plus does talking about it make it worse?
• the last new bike news of 2024, Ducati's down-sized V2 Multi
• plus a whole heap of nattering on topics raised by you, the FECers, sent in via email to the FEC-Sac, to anything@frontendchatter.com

Please keep your thoughts and ideas and musings and fantasies coming in!

Thanks for listening, and see you in Scotland in May!

Bsky
@sihbikes.bsky.social
@mufga.bsky.social

Insta
simonhbikes
mufga

Hello and welcome to Front End Chatter, Britain’s premium motorcycling podcast, hosted by Martin Fitz-Gibbons and Simon Hargreaves. This is episode 205, probably, and is supported in its endeavours by Bennetts, the bike insurance specialists – and bikesocial.co.uk, the number one place to go for bike-related news, reviews and product and kit tests. And check out Bennetts' YouTube channel, with all the lovely lovely lovely moving images contained therein.

And on this week’s FEC we natter about

• Motorcycle Live – was it any good, what was the vibe, any hot takes?
• KTM – more financial woes, and they thought chocolate cams were bad...
• Why the Govt’s failure to have plans to encourage the use of motorcycles isn’t the bad news it might sound like...
• ...but we can’t still use all bus lanes
• plans to introduce a blanket 50mph speed limit on Scottish single-lane carriageways
• when is depreciation slight enough to make an upgrade worthwhile?
• some EV stuff Simon doesn’t understand

Plus loads... well, *some* more... please get in touch at anything@frontendchatter.com with your thoughts, musings, questions and ponderings.

Or get us on Instagram:
@Mufga
@SimonHbikes

Or Bluesky:
@mufga.bsky.social
@sihbikes.bsky.social

Hello and welcome to Front End Chatter, Britain's nerdiest motorcycling podcast with him Martin Fitz-Gibbons, and him, Simon Hargreaves, supported in our double century of biking chatter by Bennetts, the UK's best bike insurance bods of whom let it not be said by any man nor woman nor anyone in between that they take the money and thank you very much. Bennetts put more back into biking than any other insurance company by an absolute country mile, and that's a fact. For example, there's BikeSocial.co.uk, the website with the news, reviews and booze, and Bennetts' mighty YouTube channel with tons of cool consumer content, and bikeclub.bennetts.co.uk – a forum to ask your questions and find your answers.

Right, welcome to Episode 200 – or not, as it turns out – of the podcast... and to be honest, it's a tough listen. For a start, we're both a bit under the weather, and then we completely geek-out over a three-cylinder Honda concept bike for like, about an hour, of informed speculation (him) and idle ignorance (me). And if it's going to make any sense at all you really need to be looking at the pics of the bike while we natter, and have watched the video of which we speak. Here, if you're interested (and I really don't blame you if you're not) are some links to where you can find this stuff:
Video is here: https://youtu.be/nkv9CGYHdik?si=SIwQ7Fw2rCBguMUm

Pics are here: https://global.honda/en/newsroom/news/2024/c241105ceng/image_download.html?from=newslink_media

We encourage you to look at them as we speak – otherwise everything we say makes even less sense than it would otherwise.

We also mention a few other things, like Suzuki's wonderful new (no, they really are) DR-Z4 and DR-Z4SM – a pair of deliciously simple green-lane and urban supermoto 400cc singles. Yes please.

We also natter about KTM's ongoing financial woes, plus the revamped 1390 SDGT and 390 Adventure. And a few other new bikes, and more musings from the FECsack – please keep your missives, thoughts, queries and offers of help with the garden coming to:
anything@frontendchatter.com

Thank you for making it this far, and fingers crossed we won't be quite so ill and tedious on the next one. Aye!

@SimonHbikes
@Mufga