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February 22, 2020 Front End Chatter #110

Front End Chatter #110

Hello and welcome to Front End Chatter, Britain’s best and most motorcycling podcast, supported through slim and thin by the veritable font (or indeed fount; both are legitimate) of tests and news and reviews, bikesocial.co.uk. And of course Bennetts, the bike insurance specialists – check out their customer rewards and make the most of being insured!

Right. Nothing going on here. Nothing to see, move along.

No, of course we have ill-informed gossip about:

  • Norton – the story you’ve probably already heard, where you can read a bit more, and – while it’s a mere spec of insignificance compared to the very real issue and pain of people losing their life savings – we discuss the role of the motorcycle media in the sorry saga
  • Triumph’s new Tiger 900 – what’s the crank like?
  • Kawasaki’s new Z1000S… sorry! Ninja 1000SX – what’s the steering like?
  • Suzuki’s V-Strom 1050 XT – what’s the paint job like?*

*It’s gorgeous!

  • MotoGP is nearly back, with the closest testing times from Sepang in the history of ever meaning it’s even more pointless to try and derive any relevance from it – and why the top-placed factory rider has a V-Strom 1000…
  • news on Iannone’s hair and sausage drug defence
  • and of course the mighty FEC-sack, including:
  • how to wave at other riders
  • VFR800Fi or late 90s Blade?
  • do mods make a used bike more or less valuable?
  • how to overcome a fear of leaning a bike through corners

…and much more.

Thanks again for lending us your ears – we really appreciate it – and thanks for all your emails which are truly thought provoking, funny, interesting and just plain daft. Please keep them coming – addressed to:

anything@frontendchatter.com

Thanks to our friends and benefactors at Bennetts and bikesocial.co.uk – the place for your all biking information, and bike and travel insurance.

Get us both on the socials

@Mufga

@SimonHbikes and simonhbikes (Instagram)

 

February 22, 2020 Front End Chatter #110

Front End Chatter #110

Hello and welcome to Front End Chatter, Britain’s best and most motorcycling podcast, supported through slim and thin by the veritable font (or indeed fount; both are legitimate) of tests and news and reviews, bikesocial.co.uk. And of course Bennetts, the bike insurance specialists – check out their customer rewards and make the most of being insured!

Right. Nothing going on here. Nothing to see, move along.

No, of course we have ill-informed gossip about:

  • Norton – the story you’ve probably already heard, where you can read a bit more, and – while it’s a mere spec of insignificance compared to the very real issue and pain of people losing their life savings – we discuss the role of the motorcycle media in the sorry saga
  • Triumph’s new Tiger 900 – what’s the crank like?
  • Kawasaki’s new Z1000S… sorry! Ninja 1000SX – what’s the steering like?
  • Suzuki’s V-Strom 1050 XT – what’s the paint job like?*

*It’s gorgeous!

  • MotoGP is nearly back, with the closest testing times from Sepang in the history of ever meaning it’s even more pointless to try and derive any relevance from it – and why the top-placed factory rider has a V-Strom 1000…
  • news on Iannone’s hair and sausage drug defence
  • and of course the mighty FEC-sack, including:
  • how to wave at other riders
  • VFR800Fi or late 90s Blade?
  • do mods make a used bike more or less valuable?
  • how to overcome a fear of leaning a bike through corners

…and much more.

Thanks again for lending us your ears – we really appreciate it – and thanks for all your emails which are truly thought provoking, funny, interesting and just plain daft. Please keep them coming – addressed to:

anything@frontendchatter.com

Thanks to our friends and benefactors at Bennetts and bikesocial.co.uk – the place for your all biking information, and bike and travel insurance.

Get us both on the socials

@Mufga

@SimonHbikes and simonhbikes (Instagram)

 

January 24, 2020 Front End Chatter #109

Front End Chatter #109

Hello and welcome to E109 of Front End Chatter, a biking podcast without barriers or boundaries – we know not the meaning of constraints other than the fairly obvious extent of our knowledge and articulacy, the limits of both of which will become obvious as soon as you press ‘Play’.

However. Enormous and sincere thanks to our patrons at bikesocial.co.uk, which is where you should go for new bike news, reviews, consumer info and racing gubbins – and Bennetts, the bike insurance bods who are often the cheapest and even when they’re not, at least put something back into biking. Like this podcast. It’s not all about you, you know.

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. Thanks for listening, apologies for rambling on so much (never mind editing your letters, we should try editing the replies), and please keep your mails and thoughts and queries coming to:

anything@frontendchatter.com

Big up ’spec again to bikesocial.co.uk and Bennetts…

And get us both on the Twitters (again)

@Mufga

@SimonHbikes

Aye.

 

 

January 24, 2020 Front End Chatter #109

Front End Chatter #109

Hello and welcome to E109 of Front End Chatter, a biking podcast without barriers or boundaries – we know not the meaning of constraints other than the fairly obvious extent of our knowledge and articulacy, the limits of both of which will become obvious as soon as you press ‘Play’.

However. Enormous and sincere thanks to our patrons at bikesocial.co.uk, which is where you should go for new bike news, reviews, consumer info and racing gubbins – and Bennetts, the bike insurance bods who are often the cheapest and even when they’re not, at least put something back into biking. Like this podcast. It’s not all about you, you know.

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. Thanks for listening, apologies for rambling on so much (never mind editing your letters, we should try editing the replies), and please keep your mails and thoughts and queries coming to:

anything@frontendchatter.com

Big up ’spec again to bikesocial.co.uk and Bennetts…

And get us both on the Twitters (again)

@Mufga

@SimonHbikes

Aye.

 

 

January 14, 2020 Front End Chatter #108

Front End Chatter #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, www.bikesocial.co.uk 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. Enjoy the show, and please email us on anything@frontendchatter.com  Or harass Martin on Twitter: @Mufga But not Simon because he’s a snowflake Laters, taters.

January 14, 2020 Front End Chatter #108

Front End Chatter #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, www.bikesocial.co.uk 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. Enjoy the show, and please email us on anything@frontendchatter.com  Or harass Martin on Twitter: @Mufga But not Simon because he’s a snowflake Laters, taters.

December 29, 2019 Front End Chatter #107

Front End Chatter #107

 

Hello and welcome to E107 of Front End Chatter, Britain’s most biodegradable biking podcast, oralised by Martin Fitz-Gibbons and Simon Hargreaves, and supported and recycled by the green bins at bikesocial.co.uk and Bennetts, the bike insurance specialists.

 

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.co.uk – a tumescent repository of motorcycling wisdom – and Bennetts, whose insurance superstardom continues to include 10% off at Halfords on top of goodness knows what else.

 

Please email your thoughts, queries, questions, musings and mitherings to:

 

anything@frontendchatter.com

 

Fank youse.

 

 

 

 

 

 

December 29, 2019 Front End Chatter #107

Front End Chatter #107

 

Hello and welcome to E107 of Front End Chatter, Britain’s most biodegradable biking podcast, oralised by Martin Fitz-Gibbons and Simon Hargreaves, and supported and recycled by the green bins at bikesocial.co.uk and Bennetts, the bike insurance specialists.

 

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.co.uk – a tumescent repository of motorcycling wisdom – and Bennetts, whose insurance superstardom continues to include 10% off at Halfords on top of goodness knows what else.

 

Please email your thoughts, queries, questions, musings and mitherings to:

 

anything@frontendchatter.com

 

Fank youse.

 

 

 

 

 

 

December 13, 2019 Front End Chatter #106

Front End Chatter #106

Hello and welcome to Front End Chatter E106, Britain’s fave biking podcast, supported and enabled by the good people at bikesocial.co.uk and Bennetts, the bike insurance specialists.

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

Thanks for listening, you’ve been wonderful. Big up my man at Bikesocial.co.uk – an outstanding repository of motorcycling wisdom – and Bennetts, whose insurance wizardry includes 10% off at Halfords.

Please email your thoughts, queries, questions, musings and mitherings to:

anything@frontendchatter.com

Fank youse.

 

December 13, 2019 Front End Chatter #106

Front End Chatter #106

Hello and welcome to Front End Chatter E106, Britain’s fave biking podcast, supported and enabled by the good people at bikesocial.co.uk and Bennetts, the bike insurance specialists.

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

Thanks for listening, you’ve been wonderful. Big up my man at Bikesocial.co.uk – an outstanding repository of motorcycling wisdom – and Bennetts, whose insurance wizardry includes 10% off at Halfords.

Please email your thoughts, queries, questions, musings and mitherings to:

anything@frontendchatter.com

Fank youse.