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Front End Chatter #223

Release Date: 07/09/2026

Front End Chatter

Hello, welcome everyone and eyes down for The Big FEC Quiz Of The Year! For the first time in 224 episodes of semi-popular pontification, rarely informed speculation and increasingly elaborate two-wheeled tangents, him Simon Hargreaves and him Martin Fitz-Gibbons finally stop pretending to know all the answers… and start asking the questions instead. Recorded live during the splendidly spectacular 'Moors The Merrier' tour of Yorkshire and the Pennines, organised with forensic fastidiousness by the lovely Paul, Jo and Ollie at MCi Tours (), you’re in for an hour of motorcycle-themed...

Front End Chatter #223

Front End Chatter

Front End Chatter #222

Front End Chatter

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 () and BikeClub ()...

Front End Chatter #221

Front End Chatter

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...

Front End Chatter #220

Front End Chatter

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...

Front End Chatter #219

Front End Chatter

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...

Front End Chatter #218

Front End Chatter

Hello and welcome to Front End Chatter, Britain’s Best Biking Podcast presented by ‘Fox Mulder’ Hargreaves and ‘Dana Scully’ Fitz-Gibbons – because, spookily, this is FEC Episode 218; exactly the same number of episodes as TV’s The X-Files. Except it’s not spooky at all because it’s not a coincidence. It’s inevitable there’s a TV show with exactly 218 episodes, and it’s the X-Files; if we waited until FEC 219 to make the connection, it would be the same number of episodes as the original ABC run of the American improvisational comedy series Whose Line Is It Anyway?...

Front End Chatter #217

Front End Chatter

Hello everyone and welcome to THE 2025 FECSTIVAL – live from the beautiful Buccleuch Arms Hotel in stunning, sun-drenched (cough, ish, ahem) Moffat, Scotlandshire! After a couple of fantastic (truth), incident-free (truth-ish) and bone-dry (truth-adjacent) days riding through the very best of the Scottish Borders and the Galloway Forest, Front End Chatter – Britain’s best biking podcast – has retired to the bar for a small sweet sherry, a roaring radiator, and 43 minutes of inspired, improvised, impromptu biking banter and deep-drivel discussions including: Marc Marquez’s ninth (or...

Front End Chatter #216

Front End Chatter

Aye, wotcha, marnin', welcome to Front End Chatter, wiv him, Simon Fitz-Martin, and him Hargreaves Gibbons, a reet pair of motorcycle journalists speaking into a wizardy recording device for the 216th time of asking, except nobody is. You get what you deserve. Massive thanks to Bennetts, Britain's Best bike insurers, and bikesocial.co.uk, for their support of this podcast, and seemingly limitless reserves of patience and understanding at this most trying of times (and we really are trying). And on this week's FEC (which week is that exactly?) we have: • why Triumph's 2025...

Front End Chatter #215

Front End Chatter

Hello and welcome to Front End Chatter, and it’s episode 215 of the long-running motorcycling podcast with him, Martin Fitz-Gibbons, and him, Simon Hargreaves – and immense thanks as always to the ever-supportive Bennetts, Britain’s best-by-miles bike insurer, and the magnificent bikesocial.co.uk, the website with all your info on the latest new bikes, used bikes, classic bikes, news, reviews and product tests. Right, on with the show – and, today, we’re in for a reborn, reinvented, reimagined, reincarnated treat... because: • Suzuki’s GSX-R1000R is back, baby, for 2026 – and...

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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

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