Front End Chatter

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 anything@frontendchatter.com
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.
 
In this contrite (but alas not concise) episode of Britain's best biking podcast, Simon and Mufga discuss:
 
•     Bikes for which manufacturers owe us an apology
•     Riding a Manx Norton (ah) followed by a Norton Manx R – read more in Bike magazine
•     BMW's R1300RS and Moto Guzzi's V100 Mandello S – read more in Bike magazine
•     Touring to Spa on BMW's ludicrous M1000XR – read more in RiDE magazine
•     How 'downgrading' tyres can improve a bike's ride and handling
•     What went on at the 2026 Isle of Man TT
•     Every biking engine layout, what they have in common, and which is best
•     Whether speed limiters ruin sports-tourers
•     The glory days of grey imports, and why they died out
 
Thank you, one and all, for choosing to pour some Front End Chatter into your ears. Please keep sending your questions, thoughts, comments, wonderings and ponderings to anything@frontendchatter.com
 
Until next time – whenever that may be...

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. 

Right, on with the show – and today Martin and Simon, for it is he, opine about, in no particular order...
• Suzuki's marvellous DRZ-Z4S and how old can be better than new
• the loss of Phillip Island as a MotoGP circuit
• Honda Hornet 1000 recall for excessive oil consumption
• UK bikes sales stats for YTD up to Feb
• fab epic bike doc by FortNine called Yalla Habibi
• plus a selection of your fine emails from the FECSack. 

As ever, please keep your questions and queries coming to anything@frontendchatter.com

And thank you very much for listening!

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. 

And on the pod this month we natter about – blimey, where do we start? 
• Bennetts pull out of BSB sponsorship – the why and the what it means for BSB
• The Buccleuch Arms Hotel, famed as the best hotel in Scotland and catering especially for motorcyclists, is up for sale! Details within
• Moors The Merrier FEC Tour in 'almost sold out' shock!
• 2025 new bike sales nearly 20% down on 2024
• Voge R625 ain't half bad
• Kawasaki Z1100 SE is more than half good
• revolutionary solid state battery-powered bike with 10min recharge and 300mile plus range, 'Verge'-ing on the ridiculous
• 62 historic MotoGP bikes worth zillions seized in Mexican drug bust
• what's your top speed, ever, no names officer
• which bike is the GOAT of all time? 

All this and more! And it's all in one episode! 

Send your questions, thoughts, comments, brain farts, top speeds and nominations for Greatest Bike Of All Time to anything@frontendchatter.com

And don't forget to book onto the Moors The Merrier Tour with us! It's in July, it'll be sunny, it's a weekend, and the beer is... well, it's not free but you might get a pint out of it! 

May your god go with you.

Hello and welcome indeed to Front End Chatter, Episode 219, in which Martin and Simon use their vast misunderstanding of motorcycles as a basis for interminable waffling on a podcast. As ever, they are supported in their efforts by Bennetts, Britain's best bike insurers, and bikesocial.co.uk, all your motorcycling info needs on the web. 

And on this pod, Simon and Martin natter about: 
• the forthcoming FEC Tour 2026 – The Moors The Merrier – on July 17-20th in the N Yorks Moors
• smashing phones on bikes
• Triumph's Tiger Sport 800
• why bikes aren't as fast as they used to be, and why no-one cares
• Honda's CB1000GT
• Honda's VR3
• Honda's NW7
• BMW's F450GS
• Norton's Atlases
• CFMoto's KTM 990 Adventure
...and much much much more.

Thank you for listening, please spread the word amongst your peers, and please sign up to the FEC Tour by emailing anything@frontendchatter.com and registering your interest. Onwards!