Thursday 18 September 2014

Front End Chatter Podcast

Not sure if Front End Chatter is the world's only motorcycling podcast, but it's the only one I listen to.
It's recorded in England (about 8 miles from my house) by two very experienced moto journalists. Simon Hargreaves (in the black above, and on an S1000RR racing a Veyron, below) started on PB in the 1800s, edited it (twice), worked on a car mag for a bike, went back to PB then onto Bike. Martin Fitz-Gibbons (MFG or Mufga, pouring tea in the photo) was on Bike for nearly a decade. He has a degree in brain-melting maths and uses this experience to work out the probabilities of Marquez's next win.

Now the pair freelance for most British mags.

The normal structure of the 90 or so minute show is: cover racing news - MotoGP, WSB and BSB - giving opinion and fact, plus news and rumour. Next is new bikes and a bit of road test nattering. Finally is any other business. In the most recent programme (#17), they give (very differing) strong opinions of the Police campaign centred around the David Holmes video.

I rarely agree totally with their views, but I still love listening. They are incredibly well informed. They inhabit a world of kneesliders and two-year-old sportsbikes and have ridden everything from MotoGP bikes down.

I listen while walking the dog and never miss an episode.

It's currently unsponsored, so they're doing it for fun and, perhaps, to raise their profiles. For an amateur podcast, the sound quality is very good, but there are enough amateur pauses, and paper shuffling for it to be casual.

You can download it through your smartphone, searching Front End Chatter in your podcast app, or listen directly at Front End Chatter. G
Photos: Jason Crtichell (top), Tom Salt (bottom)

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