Front End Chatter #181

Front End Chatter

Hello and welcome to Episode 181 of Front End Chatter, Britain’s most electric, eclectic and eccentric motorcycling podcast, presented by hoary old motorcycle journalists Simon Hargreaves and Martin Fitz-Gibbons. We are as ever indebted and in cahoots with Bennetts, Britain’s leading bike insurance experts, and BikeSocial.co.uk. No flipping, don’t change that channel – check out the offers, competitions and discounts Bennetts offer and become a BikeSocial member to access them all even if, for some reason beyond the wit of man, you aren’t insured with Bennetts. Don’t take our word for it – see for yourself. However, speaking as someone who always fails to take advantage of money-saving offers because I’m hamstrung by a belief that paying less than full value is somehow morally wrong (I don’t like using loyalty cards because why should a supermarket item be cheaper for someone who has a ‘loyalty card’ than for someone who hasn’t? An item should cost what an item costs for every human in that shop, regardless of where they habitually grant their custom). Mind you I’m perfectly happy to stream football matches off an eastern European website, so figure that one out.

On this episode of Front End Chatter we have topics as widely varied as: • Triumph’s new 660 Daytona and how middleweight sportsbikes now often less sporty than middleweight naked bikes

• Triumph’s addition of user-lowered rear preload on Tiger 1200s to make them more usable for more people of inversely advantaged verticality

• why KTM’s 890 Adventure R could be a forever bike, even if it doesn’t last forever

• proving a Zero electric bike can manage a day’s adventure (including off-road)

• and why every single commentator on YouTube, in print or on podcasts need their riding advice filtered through an ‘it doesn’t apply to me’ filter – this stuff ain’t Gospel, okay?

Anyway, that’s enough for now because I’m on holiday and the wifi in the holiday cottage uploads at a prehistoric pace which, given I’m on the Jurassic Coast, is appropriate if not completely infuriating. Please grace our inbox – [e-mail] – with your thoughts, queries, jokes, funny stories and any random stuff that passes across your grey matter. Catch me and him here: @SimonHbikes @Mufga