Welcome to Front End Chatter episode 55, powered by the good people at Bike Social (www.bikesocial.co.uk), where Simon and Martin discuss:

• MotoGP from Texas, where we got the first mouth-watering tease of a proper Marquez v Vinales MotoGP scrap during qualifying, only to have all our hopes and dreams cruelly snatched away during the race in a massive shower of disappointment.
• The great GP lost-and-found phenomenon, including Lorenzo losing his temper and finding it caught on multiple HD cameras (and other great racing tantrums of our time); Loris Baz losing the front and finding himself praised for it (and other great racing non-crashes of our time); and Valentino Rossi losing his piece of racetrack to General Zarco and finding himself handed a 0.3-second penalty (and whether any of this should have ever happened at all).
• British Superbikes from Brands Hatch Indy circuit, where a nice smart young man appeared to come of age (not to be confused with his race number), won two races, shattered a circuit record – and, sorry, who is he again?
• BMW’s new HP4 Race – which may or may not have been developed through racing, may or may not be eligible for any racing, and may or may not ever actually be raced by anyone ever – and where it ranks on the Front End Chatter exoticometer.
• Plus all of your emails, including the morality of riding fast on the street, whether magazines encourage law-breaking, the hidden costs of BMW’s bargain K1200LT, back-torque talk, the world’s best sub-95bhp motorcycle, why radiators are where they are, yet more Honda build quality complaints, the very best-looking bikes of all time ever, plus loads more!

Thanks for listening, and please:

– Visit our current official home at www.bikesocial.co.uk

– Catch us on Twitter at @SimonHbikes and @Mufga

– Send any thinkings, feedback, complaints, abuse and self-serving compliments you like to anything@frontendchatter.com

 

Welcome to Front End Chatter episode 55, powered by the good people at Bike Social (www.bikesocial.co.uk), where Simon and Martin discuss:

• MotoGP from Texas, where we got the first mouth-watering tease of a proper Marquez v Vinales MotoGP scrap during qualifying, only to have all our hopes and dreams cruelly snatched away during the race in a massive shower of disappointment.
• The great GP lost-and-found phenomenon, including Lorenzo losing his temper and finding it caught on multiple HD cameras (and other great racing tantrums of our time); Loris Baz losing the front and finding himself praised for it (and other great racing non-crashes of our time); and Valentino Rossi losing his piece of racetrack to General Zarco and finding himself handed a 0.3-second penalty (and whether any of this should have ever happened at all).
• British Superbikes from Brands Hatch Indy circuit, where a nice smart young man appeared to come of age (not to be confused with his race number), won two races, shattered a circuit record – and, sorry, who is he again?
• BMW’s new HP4 Race – which may or may not have been developed through racing, may or may not be eligible for any racing, and may or may not ever actually be raced by anyone ever – and where it ranks on the Front End Chatter exoticometer.
• Plus all of your emails, including the morality of riding fast on the street, whether magazines encourage law-breaking, the hidden costs of BMW’s bargain K1200LT, back-torque talk, the world’s best sub-95bhp motorcycle, why radiators are where they are, yet more Honda build quality complaints, the very best-looking bikes of all time ever, plus loads more!

Thanks for listening, and please:

– Visit our current official home at www.bikesocial.co.uk

– Catch us on Twitter at @SimonHbikes and @Mufga

– Send any thinkings, feedback, complaints, abuse and self-serving compliments you like to anything@frontendchatter.com

 

Hello and welcome to Front End Chatter E54, brought to you as is our wont, by our friends at www.bikesocial.co.uk. 

Subjects for discussion in E54 include: 

• MotoGP from The Hot Springs Of the River Hondo circuit in Argentina – who won, who fell off, who thought they should’ve won, how many miles per gallon Cal Crutchlow gets from his RCV, and a whole bunch of nerdy stats including some so nerdy we can’t actually work out what they mean

• World Snoozerbike from Aragon where

• British Superbike from Donington Park

• plus some bikes we’ve ridden including a thorough review of KTM’s revamped 390 Duke, and a less coherent mention of Honda’s new Rebel, CB1100s and CBR and CB650F

• plus your emails, which is easily the best bit, including why no-one makes 750 sportsbikes, why Rea could become the most winningest rider ever in WSB this year, and why swapping a Daytona 955i for a Versys 650 is a good idea.

Thanks for listening, please visit www.bikesocial.co.uk to download FEC (or buy insurance from Bennetts), get hold of Martin and I on Twitter at:

@SimonHbikes and @Mufga

And please keep firing in those emails about anything you want to correct us on, or want us to find out for you, or… whatever you want. Email:
anything@frontendchatter.com

Thanks!

Hello and welcome to Front End Chatter E54, brought to you as is our wont, by our friends at www.bikesocial.co.uk.  Subjects for discussion in E54 include: 

• MotoGP from The Hot Springs Of the River Hondo circuit in Argentina – who won, who fell off, who thought they should’ve won, how many miles per gallon Cal Crutchlow gets from his RCV, and a whole bunch of nerdy stats including some so nerdy we can’t actually work out what they mean

• World Snoozerbike from Aragon where

• British Superbike from Donington Park

• plus some bikes we’ve ridden including a thorough review of KTM’s revamped 390 Duke, and a less coherent mention of Honda’s new Rebel, CB1100s and CBR and CB650F

• plus your emails, which is easily the best bit, including why no-one makes 750 sportsbikes, why Rea could become the most winningest rider ever in WSB this year, and why swapping a Daytona 955i for a Versys 650 is a good idea. Thanks for listening, please visit www.bikesocial.co.uk to download FEC (or buy insurance from Bennetts), get hold of Martin and I on Twitter at:

@SimonHbikes and @Mufga And please keep firing in those emails about anything you want to correct us on, or want us to find out for you, or… whatever you want. Email: anything@frontendchatter.com

Thanks!

Welcome to Front End Chatter 53b – made possible by www.bikesocial.co.uk; go check them out! – and it’s a special FEC dedicated to answering, or failing to answer, your emails. Topics up for Front End Chattery include:

• what’s happened to the UK sportsbike market?

• do ex-police bikes make good winter hacks?

• why a BMW K1200LT is the best-value used bike out there

• the best set of one-piece leathers for under £600…

• … and what should be worn under them?

• more headphone chat (that’s quite enough of that – Ed)

• what’s better: being faster or being safer?

• why MotoGP frames are hand-made and production bike frames aren’t

• is a Honda Varadero more comfy than a Pan European, and are they more comfy than a VFR800? And where does a CBF1000 fit in all this? (and what about a BMW K1200LT?) 

•  why there’s a TAT, might one day be a TET, but probably not a TIT or a TWAT

• more Honda heated grips gripes – and turns out it’s not just the Africa Twin that suffers

• more top five favourite bikes, and a few least favourite bikes… including Honda’s 929 Blade and Kawasaki’s 2007 Z750

• how to decode new bike launches, why they’re honest, and why context matters

Thank you very much for continuing to listen to our ramblings and thank you even more for contributing with your emails, thoughts and questions – all are welcome; if anything pops into your head, or if we can help, or you disagree with us, please write and tell us at:

Email:                    anything@frontendchatter.com

Twitter:                  @SimonHbikes and @Mufga

Visit our shop:         www.tshirtstudio.com/marketplace/front-end-chatter

FB:                         www.facebook.com/FrontEndChatter

And don’t forget, click on www.bikesocial.co.uk – then go buy insurance from Bennetts!* *other insurance brokers are available, but they’re all the same with the lights out and, to be honest, with this one you get to help fund FEC!

 

 

 

 

Welcome to Front End Chatter 53b – made possible by www.bikesocial.co.uk; go check them out! – and it’s a special FEC dedicated to answering, or failing to answer, your emails. Topics up for Front End Chattery include:

• what’s happened to the UK sportsbike market?

• do ex-police bikes make good winter hacks?

• why a BMW K1200LT is the best-value used bike out there

• the best set of one-piece leathers for under £600…

• … and what should be worn under them?

• more headphone chat (that’s quite enough of that – Ed)

• what’s better: being faster or being safer?

• why MotoGP frames are hand-made and production bike frames aren’t

• is a Honda Varadero more comfy than a Pan European, and are they more comfy than a VFR800? And where does a CBF1000 fit in all this? (and what about a BMW K1200LT?) 

•  why there’s a TAT, might one day be a TET, but probably not a TIT or a TWAT

• more Honda heated grips gripes – and turns out it’s not just the Africa Twin that suffers

• more top five favourite bikes, and a few least favourite bikes… including Honda’s 929 Blade and Kawasaki’s 2007 Z750

• how to decode new bike launches, why they’re honest, and why context matters

Thank you very much for continuing to listen to our ramblings and thank you even more for contributing with your emails, thoughts and questions – all are welcome; if anything pops into your head, or if we can help, or you disagree with us, please write and tell us at:

Email:                    anything@frontendchatter.com

Twitter:                  @SimonHbikes and @Mufga

Visit our shop:         www.tshirtstudio.com/marketplace/front-end-chatter

FB:                         www.facebook.com/FrontEndChatter

And don’t forget, click on www.bikesocial.co.uk – then go buy insurance from Bennetts!*

*other insurance brokers are available, but they’re all the same with the lights out and, to be honest, with this one you get to help fund FEC!

 

 

 

 

Welcome to Front End Chatter Episode 53a, powered yet again by our friends at www.bikesocial.co.uk – and yes, it’s the first of two FECs; 53b will be along shortly. Or at least soon.

 

In the meantime, feast your ears on the will they, won’t they two-wheeled soap opera of Qatar MotoGP – including:

 

• how recording BT Sport in hi-def when you haven’t upgraded your package can result in missing the race
• the argument for and against remounting a crashed bike
• how Tech3 Yams (pronounced ‘Trois’, but don’t tell Simon) do well at Qatar until a certain Moto2 champion gets carried away
• disrespeculation about why Crutchlow crashed
• some nerdy stats about top speed
• what exactly Lorenzo is packing in his lunchbox
• plus chatter about World Superbike, World Supersports 600 and 300 at Aragon, and BSB at Donington – including a guest appearance by Martin Fitz-Guintoli…

 

We also say farewell to Sir John Surtees, have a quick tour around Suzuki’s new and rather wonderful V-Strom 650, the less new and less wonderful V-Strom, and chatter about the launch of the least powerful, least torquey, most heavieriest and most expensive Yamaha R6 ever which neither Martin or Simon attended, but about which they have an opinion anyway. Typical.

 

Thanks for listening, your emails will be answered in FEC53b, and please please please get in touch via:

email – anything@frontendchatter.com

Twitter – @SimonHbikes and @Mufga

Facebook – Front End Chatter

 

And, of course, please listen to FEC from our new home at www.bikesocial.co.uk

 

Chatter again soon!

Welcome to Front End Chatter Episode 53a, powered yet again by our friends at www.bikesocial.co.uk – and yes, it’s the first of two FECs; 53b will be along shortly. Or at least soon.

 

In the meantime, feast your ears on the will they, won’t they two-wheeled soap opera of Qatar MotoGP – including:

 

• how recording BT Sport in hi-def when you haven’t upgraded your package can result in missing the race
• the argument for and against remounting a crashed bike
• how Tech3 Yams (pronounced ‘Trois’, but don’t tell Simon) do well at Qatar until a certain Moto2 champion gets carried away
• disrespeculation about why Crutchlow crashed
• some nerdy stats about top speed
• what exactly Lorenzo is packing in his lunchbox
• plus chatter about World Superbike, World Supersports 600 and 300 at Aragon, and BSB at Donington – including a guest appearance by Martin Fitz-Guintoli…

 

We also say farewell to Sir John Surtees, have a quick tour around Suzuki’s new and rather wonderful V-Strom 650, the less new and less wonderful V-Strom, and chatter about the launch of the least powerful, least torquey, most heavieriest and most expensive Yamaha R6 ever which neither Martin or Simon attended, but about which they have an opinion anyway. Typical.

 

Thanks for listening, your emails will be answered in FEC53b, and please please please get in touch via:

email – anything@frontendchatter.com

Twitter – @SimonHbikes and @Mufga

Facebook – Front End Chatter

 

And, of course, please listen to FEC from our new home at www.bikesocial.co.uk

 

Chatter again soon!

Welcome to Front End Chatter, episode 52 – and it’s a very special episode of Britain’s least regular but much-loved motorcycling podcast because this is the first to be brought to you by the lovely people at Bike Social (www.bikesocial.co.uk)!

 Front End Chatter is a podcast spoken at length by us, a right pair of motorcycle writers called Martin Fitz-Gibbons and Simon Hargreaves, and we chatter about every and any subject with two wheels and an engine: racing, news, new bikes, old bikes, and the issues that effect you, me and him (like what bike should you get next, how to ride, what kit to wear, and generally why things are the way they are). We don’t know all the answers (in fact we hardly know any of them) but we now people who do.

Bike Social – and if you’re not reading this on their website, WHY NOT? – is Britain’s most comprehensive biking website, packed with road test, new bikes, old bikes, features and news. It’s like a bike magazine, but on the web, created by Bennetts, the bike insurance people. Did I mention you can find it here: www.bikesocial.co.uk So if you’re a long-time FEC listener, it’s good news because it means we’ll be coming in your ears twice a month.

 And if you’re a Bike Socialist, it means FEC will be brightening-up your browsing experience. We may even have a few other bits and bobs about the place after a while. So, from now on, please get your Front End Chatter fix from www.bikesocial.co.uk – and it’s on with the chatter…

 This episode may contain nuts: • MotoGP 2017 is nearly upon us, so we have look at the final test from Qatar and rate the chances of the major runners and riders courtesy of William Hill (other bookmakers are available)

• World Superbike, on the other hand, is underway and the burning question is: can the WSB racing from Thailand live up to the craziness of the opening Supersport 600 race from Phillip Island a few weeks ago? • KTM 1290 Super Adventure v BMW R1200 GS Rallye Sport: we’ve been lucky enough ride both bikes recently – one in Portugal and one in Peru – so we compare our experiences and discover how one is genuinely capable off-road bike for novices while the other is one of the best road bikes in the world, in a frock. Plus, is semi-active suspension really ‘better’ than comparable standard suspension?

• more news on the Honda Africa Twin heated grip saga

• The best waterproof textile jacket and trouser combo for £400, with buying advice help from www.sportsbikeshop.co.uk

• why covering your bike in aftermarket tat isn’t the smartest idea

• why photochromic visors don’t go black faced with car headlights (it’s obvious)

• your five dream bikes

• why MotoGP bikes don’t have vacuum die-cast frames. Or do they?

Please send you questions and comment to: anything@frontendchatter.com

You can follow us on Twitter:

@SimonHbikes

@Mufga

Or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/FrontEndChatter

Thank you for listening, thank you for your support, please listen to us and download from Bike Social at:

www.bikesocial.co.uk

 

 

 

 

Welcome to Front End Chatter, episode 52 – and it’s a very special episode of Britain’s least regular but much-loved motorcycling podcast because this is the first to be brought to you by the lovely people at

Bike Social (www.bikesocial.co.uk)!

 Front End Chatter is a podcast spoken at length by us, a right pair of motorcycle writers called Martin Fitz-Gibbons and Simon Hargreaves, and we chatter about every and any subject with two wheels and an engine: racing, news, new bikes, old bikes, and the issues that effect you, me and him (like what bike should you get next, how to ride, what kit to wear, and generally why things are the way they are). We don’t know all the answers (in fact we hardly know any of them) but we now people who do.

Bike Social – and if you’re not reading this on their website, WHY NOT? – is Britain’s most comprehensive biking website, packed with road test, new bikes, old bikes, features and news. It’s like a bike magazine, but on the web, created by Bennetts, the bike insurance people. Did I mention you can find it here: www.bikesocial.co.uk

So if you’re a long-time FEC listener, it’s good news because it means we’ll be coming in your ears twice a month.

 And if you’re a Bike Socialist, it means FEC will be brightening-up your browsing experience. We may even have a few other bits and bobs about the place after a while.

So, from now on, please get your Front End Chatter fix from www.bikesocial.co.uk – and it’s on with the chatter…

 This episode may contain nuts:

• MotoGP 2017 is nearly upon us, so we have look at the final test from Qatar and rate the chances of the major runners and riders courtesy of William Hill (other bookmakers are available)

• World Superbike, on the other hand, is underway and the burning question is: can the WSB racing from Thailand live up to the craziness of the opening Supersport 600 race from Phillip Island a few weeks ago?

• KTM 1290 Super Adventure v BMW R1200 GS Rallye Sport: we’ve been lucky enough ride both bikes recently – one in Portugal and one in Peru – so we compare our experiences and discover how one is genuinely capable off-road bike for novices while the other is one of the best road bikes in the world, in a frock. Plus, is semi-active suspension really ‘better’ than comparable standard suspension?

• more news on the Honda Africa Twin heated grip saga

• The best waterproof textile jacket and trouser combo for £400, with buying advice help from www.sportsbikeshop.co.uk

• why covering your bike in aftermarket tat isn’t the smartest idea

• why photochromic visors don’t go black faced with car headlights (it’s obvious)

• your five dream bikes

• why MotoGP bikes don’t have vacuum die-cast frames. Or do they?

Please send you questions and comment to: anything@frontendchatter.com

You can follow us on Twitter:

@SimonHbikes

@Mufga

Or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/FrontEndChatter

Thank you for listening, thank you for your support, please listen to us and download from Bike Social at:

www.bikesocial.co.uk