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? Insert your own joke here.

And thanks as always to our benevolent benefactors Bennetts, Britain's Best Bike insurers, and bikesocial.co.uk, the website/YouTube channel for all your biking needs. And remember to become a BikeSocial Member – it's automatic if you're insured with Bennetts, or it's £60 per year or £6 per month if not. But it means you get access to loads of competitions, offers and money-off deals on a veritable panoply of kit – basically, if you're thinking of buying anything for your bike, check to see if it's on the list; you might be able to save more than the cost of membership.

For a list of current offers and discounts, visit rewards.bennetts.co.uk/categories

Right, on with the show, and this week Simon and Martin natter about:

• Triumph's new Trident 800
• Ducati's new Monster
• Kawasaki's new KLE500
• Honda's new CB1000F
• Yamaha's new Ténéré 700 World Raid

Plus
• BMW R1300 GSA v RS v RT, and the merits of riding 600 miles for one photo
• Has motorcycling got too easy; if you don't have to earn it, is it worth anything?
• What's it like riding Honda's RC213V-S in 2025?
• Riding 'signatures'
• What's the easiest engine to work on?
• And loads of other hot air and nonsense

Thanks for listening, please tell your motorcycling pals and spread the FEC message of love, hope, friendship and riding as far and fast as possible at all times...
And please continue to grace the inbox and anything@fronteendchatter.com with your thoughts, questions, queries and general bantz.

Aye. Carry on.

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 is it seventh?) world championship, if his comeback really is the greatest return ever witnessed across the near-infinite history of sporting achievement, and whether MotoGP's new owners are trying to control our collective thoughts
• Witnessing hostility towards Chinese-branded bikes thaw in real time, the reasons we're starting to be interested (b£¥ond the obviou$), and how soon before the first one is part of a FEC tour
• Nominations for the greatest, must-ride, can't-miss riding roads in all of mainland continental Europe, especially if the definition of 'mainland continental Europe' now includes the UK and a bit of America…
• Could electric bikes be the future of trackdays? Simon & Mufga's mixed fortunes with electric bikes on track. And could Front End Chatter's future lie in someone's fuel tank?
• Radical suggestions for reorganising bike ergonomics and controls, featuring foot clutch, backwards-action left-hand throttle and bum brake
• The perfect bike for when you're retiring to live in Japan

Thank you FECers one and all - and to Paul, Jo and Anthea at MCi Tours - for joining us at the 2025 FECstival, either live and in person or via time-travelling earholes. And, of course, sincerest gratitudes as ever to Bennetts, Britain's best bike insurers, for continuing to enhance, advance and romance Front End Chatter – don't forget to get a quote direct from Bennetts the next time your motorcycle insurance is up for renewal, then be sure to buy your policy direct so you can enjoy more than 100 offers, discounts and exclusive opportunities all thanks to a year's free BikeSocial membership!

Ciao for now – and maybe see you at Motorcycle Live in November…

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 Speed Triple RS has got us so excited we're figuratively and, in Simon's case literally, standing to attention
• why Kawasaki's Ninja 1100SX SE Tourer is a genuine contender for 'Sports Tourer of 2025" as if that's an actual thing, which it isn't, really
• why Yamaha's Tracer 7 GT is a genuine contender for "Sports Tourer of 2025 under 1000cc" as if that's also an actual thing, which it also isn't, also really
• why BMW's R1300 RT is more like a sports tourer, with a longer tank range and as long as you don't do more than 400 miles in a day
• how journalists have tested the patience of manufacturers (how many fingers have you got?)
• why CFMoto's 450 MT is about to take over the world
All this and not much more, come on, it was gone 9pm when we finished and I needed a lie down with a stiff one, it might not be the most physically demanding job but I don't remember that last time a plumber had to compromise his principles quite as often. Dahling.

Right, enough, go away, but not before you've summoned your thoughts, musings, queries, questions and hilarious stories of motorcycling mishaps and mayhem and committed them to an email to:
anything@frontendchatter.com

We remain your effervescent amis

Simon H
Mufga

Ride yer bike. You know it makes very little sense.