Hello and welcome to Front End Chatter, possibly Britain’s longest-running motorcycling podcast, don’t sue us, we haven’t done the maths, and welcome to episode 151, supported and enhanced as ever by the presence and patronage of Bennetts, the bike insurance specialists, and bikesocial.co.uk – the place get all your news and views and reviews of new bikes, used bikes, kit tests and everything happening in motorcycling. And on Front End Chatter E151 we have a FECsack special, partly because there...
Jan 17, 2022•1 hr 41 min
Hello and welcome to Front End Chatter Episode 150, presented as ever by Martin Fitz-Gibbons and Simon Hargreaves, and supported by Bennetts, the bike insurance specialist, and bikesocial.co.uk, your one-stop on the interwebs for everything bike-related – and don’t forget to check out Bennetts’ YouTube channel with a stack of new bike launch videos, consumer advice and how-tos. And on this Christmassy episode we have: Some bad bike jokes FEC at the NEC; our chat on stage with Mr Jamie James Whit...
Dec 21, 2021•2 hr 8 min
Hello and welcome to Front End Chatter, and is it that time already? This, in all its error-strewn glory, is episode 149 of the biking podcast presented by Martin Fitz-Gibbons and Simon Hargreaves in which they attempt to steer a smooth path between pot-holes on the A87 of modern motorcycling, and avoid denting their rims. Front End Chatter is, as ever, proud to be supported by Bennetts, the bike insurance specialists, and Bikesocial.co.uk, the best website in the world for getting all your moto...
Dec 03, 2021•2 hr 23 min
Hello and welcome to episode 148 of the long-running motorcycling podcast otherwise known as Front End Chatter, presented before your brain by Simon Hargreaves and Martin Fitz-Gibbons and supported like a bridge over troubled water by Bennetts, the bike insurance specialists, and bikesocial.co.uk, the place to get all your bike news, reviews, product tests and racing. And on this week’s episode Simon and Martin blather about: goodbye and farewell to you-know-who, managing to make the very last l...
Nov 19, 2021•2 hr 2 min
Hello and welcome to Front End Chatter, and episode 147 of the world’s most motorcycling podcast performed by Martin Fitz-Gibbons and Simon Hargreaves, supported by Bennetts, the bike insurance specialists, and www.bikesocial.co.uk, the number one place on the web to carbon capture all the info fit to eat on anything to do with news, new bikes reviews, gear guides and kit tests, used bike info and all manner of racing stuff. So on this episode of Front End Chatter we have a trundle on about: a n...
Oct 28, 2021•1 hr 39 min
Hello and welcome to Front End Chatter E146, the UK’s most iambically pentametered motorcycling podcast, poetically performed and produced by Martin Fitz-Gibbons and Simon Hargreaves, and perennially supported by Bennetts, the bike insurance specialists, and www.bikesocial.co.uk, the happeningiest place to go for offers, deals and square meals – if you can buy it for your bike or your riding life, you can get discounts and cool points with Bennetts BikeSocial. Fact. And on this episode of FEC we...
Sep 26, 2021•1 hr 46 min
Hello and go away to Front End Chatter, the UK’s most motorcycling podcast featuring aural nonsense from Martin Fitz-Gibbons and Simon Hargreaves. This is episode 145, supported and nourished by Bennetts Bike Social; so much more than just bike – and now car – insurance: check out their website to discover the multifarious munificent benefits of membership. And, if you’re at all interested in Yamaha’s Tracer 9 GT v Triumph’s Tiger 900 GT Pro v BMW’s F900XR v Kawasaki’s Versys 1000 SE GT, check o...
Sep 11, 2021•1 hr 46 min
Hello and welcome to Front End Chatter Episode 144, Britain’s – nay, the world’s – most irreverent motorcycling podcast, with Martin Fitz-Gibbons and Simon Hargreaves. Thanks as ever to Bennetts, the bike insurance specialists, and BikeSocial.co.uk, the world of motorcycling on the web, for their unwavering support (especially while the new wing of Chatter Manors is built). And on this week’s episode we have: what year would Kenny Roberts Snr have retired if he’d had Rossi’s career longevity? ex...
Aug 26, 2021•2 hr 8 min
Welcome, friends, to Front End Chatter E143 – the one hundred and forty third time Martin Fitz-Gibbons and Simon Hargreaves, some-time motorcycle journalists past and present, have sat, stood and otherwise presented themselves before a pair of microphones and spoken unto them, sometimes with funny accents. And special thanks to our sponsors and friends at Bennetts, the bike insurance specialists, and www.bikesocial.co.uk where you can find new bike news, racing, buying guides, used reviews, and ...
Aug 14, 2021•1 hr 54 min
Hello and welcome to Front End Chatter E142, and right up front please accept sincere apologies for the lousy sound quality – the usual recording room at Chatter Manors has been flooded by an unfortunate incident involving a blockage in the sceptic tank and Ron, the missing handyman, who, it transpires, is in fact the blockage. Thus Simon and Martin have been forced to squeeze into the only room in Chatter Manors that isn't knee-deep in effluent – which is, ironically, the downstairs toilet comp...
Aug 01, 2021•2 hr 2 min
Hello and welcome to E141 of that Front End Chatter they have nowadays, spoken with words by Martin Fitz-Gibbons and Simon Hargreaves and supported, enabled and legitimised by our fwends at Bennetts, the bike insurance specialists (and yes, they will insure a Tuono!), and Bike Social, the bike club that gives you access to discounts, track days, events and competitions – as well as running the most up-to-date and informative biking website and YouTube channel, at www.bikesocial.co.uk And on this...
Jul 18, 2021•2 hr 13 min
Hello and welcome to Front End Chatter Episode 140 – in which Martin Fitz-Gibbons and Simon Hargreaves (supported and nurtured by Bennetts, the bike insurance specialists, and www.bikesocial.co.uk, the world of biking on the web) natter at length about: the Dutch TT at Assen and very much about the future of one Maverick Vinales – and where *is* his head at? BMW’s new R1300GS and why it might not be what everyone thinks it might be news of Mufga’s SV650 renovation which sporty middleweight twin ...
Jul 01, 2021•1 hr 44 min
Hello and welcome to episode 139 of Front End Chatter, the marvellous motorcycling podcast supported and, indeed, buoyed by Bennetts, the bike insurance specialists, and www.bikesocial.co.uk, the world of motorcycling on the web. And on FEC this week we have: • young Fabio’s habit of getting his boobs out, and the propriety of doing it on the last laps of a MotoGP race plans to livestream the 2022 TT, plus more racing in 2023 where we stand on Ana Carrasco’s balls Simon’s latest headphone revela...
Jun 18, 2021•2 hr 14 min
Hello and benvenuto to Front End Chatter, Britain’s most tardy motorcycling podcast with Martin Fitz-Gibbons and Simon Hargreaves. And why not. And, lest we forget, grazie to our wonderfully benevolent benefactors Bennetts, the bike insurance specialists, from who you can secure not only, some say, the most competitive insurance premiums in the business, but who also are the only bike insurers who plough so much back into motorcycling – where do you want your cash to go? Into the pockets of fat ...
Jun 02, 2021•2 hr 23 min
Hello and welcome to Front End Chatter Episode 137 in the long-running series of 137 so far, in which Simon H and Mufga, a pair of motorcycling outfluencers, talk about motorbikes and motorcycling – and are supported in their endeavour by the mighty Bennetts, the bike insurance specialists, and www.bikesocial.co.uk, the wonderful world of widing on the web. In this episode we have: MotoGP from Portugal, wherein did Marc Marquez return to the fray and managed to score more points in one race than...
Apr 25, 2021•2 hr 6 min
Hello and welcome to Episode 136 of Front End Chatter, the UK's most chocolatey motorcycling podcast. Thank you to Bennetts, the suspenders to our stockings, and www.bikesocial.co.uk, the internet's repository of all that is wise and current about motorcycling. A And in this episode Simon and Martin rattle on about: • MotoGP is back! Two races from Qatar, a veritable oasis of human rights, and a few lefts, in the desert – where, true to current MotoGP form, there is literally and metaphorically ...
Apr 05, 2021•2 hr 2 min
Hello and welcome to Front End Chatter, the world’s most self-deprecating motorcycling podcast in which, for the 135th time, Simon Hargreaves and Martin Fitz-Gibbons talk two wheels into a microphone. FEC is supported by Bennetts, Britain’s best bike insurance specialists, and www.bikesocial.co.uk, the web’s central repository of all the news, new bike reviews, product tests and touring info worth a read. And on this week’s FEC we have: the season hasn’t even begun yet, but MotoGP testing from Q...
Mar 21, 2021•2 hr 8 min
Hello and welcome to Episode 134 of Front End Chatter, the UK's most scatterbrained motorcycling podcast featuring the musical talents of Martin 'Maverick Not Vinales' Fitz-Gibbons and Simon 'Iceberg Lettuce' Hargreaves. Apparently it's the seventh anniversary of Front End Chatter. Happy birthday to us. We are enabled and besotted with Bennetts, the Bike Insurance specialists – yes, ask them nicely and they'll do their best to help, as proven by Mufga – and www.bikesocial.co.uk, the world of mot...
Mar 07, 2021•2 hr 9 min
Hello and welcome to Front End Chatter, Britain’s most pancake-powered biking podcast, with Simon Hargreaves and Martin Fitz-Gibbons, Britain’s most pancaked motorcycle journalists. And Front End Chatter is, as ever, made from the plain flour and two eggs of Bennetts, the bike insurance specialists, and www.bikesocial.co.uk , the world’s most comprehensive motorcycling website. And on this episode of Front End Chatter we have: how do you like your pancakes? full details of Suzuki’s 2021 Hayabusa...
Feb 18, 2021•2 hr 12 min
Hello and welcome to Front End Chatter, and episode 132 of the long funning ramily drama in which ranty old seadog Simon Hargreaves (played by Oliver Reed, in his final screen role), rattling around alone in the east wing of Chatter Manors, is faced with moral bankruptcy and can only be saved by the intervention of the saintly Martin Fitz-Gibbons (played by Peter O’Toole in his final screen role). Together they form an unlikely alliance with Bennetts, the bike insurance specialists (played by Al...
Feb 05, 2021•2 hr 5 min
Hello and welcome to Front End Chatter E131, Britain’s favourite and longest serving motorcycling podcast, possibly either or, who’s counting? What’s for sure is we’re indebted and abetted by Bennetts, the bike insurance specialists, and www.bikesocial.co.uk, the marvellous motorcycling website. And on FEC this week, Simon and Martin chatter about: Triumph’s new Speed Triple 1200 RS – how big will it be really, is it bored and/or stroked, and will Triumph go after hyper-naked revs and power, or ...
Jan 21, 2021•2 hr 3 min
Hello and welcome to Front End Chatter E130, and the first FEC of 2021; a brand new year, and hopefully things will get better – but some things stay the same and there’s not much chance of FEC improving any time soon. Thanks as always to Bennetts, the bike insurance specialists, and www.bikesocial.co.uk, home of all that’s good and virtuous in motorcycling. And on FEC this week, Simon and Martin chatter about: Davide Brivio’s shock exit from Suzuki MotoGP team boss to F1... and who we’d choose ...
Jan 11, 2021•2 hr 11 min
Hello and welcome to a very special mini-episode of Front End Chatter, sponsored by Bennetts and www.bikesocial.co.uk – and it’s the one where Simon and Martin, literally a quartet of spods in underpants, get to have a 10-minute chat with none other than the 2020 MotoGP World Champion, Suzuki’s Joan Mir. It’s short and sweet, a bit like Mr Mir himself.
Jan 05, 2021•26 min
Hello and welcome a fully festive, technically flawed, partially visual (which makes no sense to listeners in black and white) but otherwise entirely oral episode 129 of Front End Chatter, Britain’s favourite motorcycling podcast helmed by Simon Hargreaves and Martin Fitz-Gibbons and kept afloat by the oceanic Bennetts, the bike insurance specialists, and www.bikesocial.co.uk, all your two-wheeled needs digitally delivered via fibre optics (get well soon John!) And this week on FEC we have: good...
Dec 23, 2020•2 hr 20 min
Ladies and gentlemens, pray welcome to Front End Chatter E128. Inside you’ll discover presentation by the ineffable Mr Simon Hargreaves and the inestimable Mr Martin Fitz-Gibbons, plus their delightfully delictatious Mr Ben Nets, the bike insurance specialist, and wwwbikesocial.co.uk, the world of motorcycling on the webbage. And in this episode of FEC we have: Mufga’s riding impressions of the new Aprilia RS660 (closes eyes, makes brum brum noises) and SiH’s riding impressions of the new Ducati...
Dec 10, 2020•1 hr 59 min
Hello and welcome to Front End Chatter Episode 127, the slightly behind the curve episode, with Martin Fitz-Gibbons and Simon Hargreaves waffling along as usual – supported and enhanced by Bennetts, the bike insurance specialists, and www.bikesocial.co.uk, the home of all things two-wheeled and powered by an engine, internally combustible or electric or, indeed, propelled by little more than an inappropriate fragrant emission. And on the show this week we have: a new MotoGP World Champeen, and a...
Nov 29, 2020•2 hr 12 min
Hello and welcome to Front End Chatter, Britain's most paracorded motorcycling podcast Fronted by Simon Hargreaves, Ended by Martin Fitz-Gibbons and Chattered by www.bikesocial.co.uk and Bennetts, the bike insurance specialists. And in E126 we have: • Yamaha's overhauled, uprated and enlarged (but not in the way you might have read) MT-09 • Martin's unnatural desire to buy a Piaggio MP3, as winter-hack path to an almost equally irrational Aprilia RS660 • the usual ramblings on MotoGP including w...
Nov 01, 2020•1 hr 53 min
Hello and welcome for Front End Chatter, Britain’s best biking podcast, and Episode 125 of the aforementioned, presented by him, Martin Fitz-Gibbons, and him, Simon Hargreaves. And we are, as ever, enabled and legitimised by Bennetts, the bike insurance specialists, and www.bikesocial.co.uk, the wonderful world of woking on the web. And in this fun-sized Mars Bar of an episode we chatter about: how IAM observers are like twitchers what’s the best 125 ever, why isn’t it the Varadero, and are mode...
Oct 17, 2020•1 hr 59 min
Hurrah for wet roads, diminishing daylight and dropping temperatures. We’re so excited about the onset of winter. Excited, excited, excited. Apparently, a study of the moods of the Nordic peoples shows a successful strategy for coping with long periods of little sunshine – and Seasonal Affective Disorder – may be to simply develop a positive attitude toward it. Literally, repeating “I am excited about ” has been shown to reduce anxiety. So we’re excited, excited and excited to invite you into Fr...
Oct 05, 2020•2 hr 6 min
Hello and welcome to Front End Chatter, Britain’s nicest motorcycling podcast, with Simon H & Mufga, punctuated and perforated by Bennetts, the bike insurance specialists and BikeSocial.co.uk, home of news, views, road tests and Jammie Dodgers. And on this month’s – hang on, it’s been a month? – we chatter about: the closest, craziest MotoGP season since records began with exploding brakes, exploding forearms, exploding engines, first-time winning teams, bikes and riders, unlikely crashes an...
Sep 18, 2020•1 hr 56 min
