The creator/writer/producer is a man by the name of Kurt Sutter. If you been watching FX network for a while you may have heard of him as he was one of the writers for The Shield, which was formerly on FX.

In his latest blog post Mr. Sutter points to an article on why most network scripted show suck. In my opinion the article is dead on and Kurt's comments are dead on as well...Jay Leno recently moved from the Tonight Show to another show, *exactly* the same as the Tonight Show. Where's the innovation?

Another thing that fuels my passion for this show is that Kurt is a blogger. And he also has a twitter account and actively engages with the fans of SoA. I totally respect him for that. I can't pretend to imagine what it's like to be a writer/creator of a hit TV show but I'm pretty sure it takes a lot of time. I applaud him for making the time and giving back to his fans. I know it makes me want to do whatever I can to promote the show.

If you haven't seen SoA yet it's in its second season. I would *highly* recommend buying the first season on dvd. The cast commentary on the episodes and the extras make the set totally worth the price. I think they can also be purchased from iTunes so you can catch up with the current season.

I have to say I'm not really surprised by this...Seems HD has always hamstrung what "innovations" Buell could make..I think if they turned him loose and throw some money into developing a new engine they could have a have a bike to contend with the imports...But, that's not going to happen now...Such a shame...Way to go MoCo..

I found a site a few years back after the Discovery show "Biker Build-off" when they had a British bike builder named Russell Mitchell. He owns Exile Cycles. As he said on one of the shows he said to a guy that he could have any color bike as long as it was black. Every bike he builds is extremely clean and has a very industrial look to it. All the controls are usually hidden in the handlebars and the front/rear tires are ridiculously huge..I'm a fan..My bike now has a 150 front and 240 rear and I'll never go back to skinnier tires..

I asked myself what would be a dream bike for me? Only one came to mind..Meet "Fat Bloke"

Ready to paint this bike goes for 30k...Ready to ride is 50k...If I had the money there would be a pic of a Fat Bloke with yours truly on it . More pics can be found at Exile Cycles

Front Tire:

The front tire on this bike is huge! I've been a big fan of large front tires simply because when a road is expanded there are seams that the road crews don't bother getting rid of..If you're in a car you probably never even notice these seams but if you have a bike you'll feel them and as the bike tire crosses that seam it feels like the bike is unstable. With a large front tire the bike just cruises over these seams with no problem.

Windshield:

Like most other windshields this one is just a tad too short for me. This one does have lowers on it which keep damn near all the wind from behind the shield..

Handlebars:

I really like the pulled back feel of the stock bars..The only compliant I have are the stock grips. They suck. They suck really, really bad. In fact the first mod I made to the bike was having new grips put on. I bought the same grips I had on my Vstar and all is right now

Instrument Cluster:

I *finally* have a gas gauge!!! On my last bike I had to keep track of how many miles I'd gone in between fillups. This bike not only has a gas gauge but it has a gas light that starts blinking when it's time to start looking for a fill up. I only got 142 miles on the first tank before the gas light started blinking. Granted, if this had been the Vstar I would have already had to switch to my reserve since the main tank would have been out. One thing I have to keep reminding myself of is this bike doesn't have a reserve, if I run out of gas I'm stuck.

Another gripe with Suzuki. Why on earth would you build this wonderful bike and not include **self cancelling turn signals**?! It really bugs me to have to remember to turn the signals off.

The odometer and gas gauge along with a clock are all in an LCD. I was a bit worried that if in direct sunlight the numbers would get washed out like they sometimes did on the Vstar but that didn't happen. The addition of a clock was a good decision. I never know what time it is since I can't dig my phone out to look at the time..One thing I was it had was a thermometer.

Engine:

This thing is a damn hoss. Since the bike is still in break in period I haven't "poured the coal to it" so to speak. But it has been really hard to keep this bike below 70 and not because I'm a speed demon or anything but because 70 on this bike feels like 45 on my last bike. I did happen to get a flash from local law enforcement so that has been helping me keep it low O:-)

Heel/Toe Shifter:

I've never used one of these before. Basically you have two ways to change gears..To up shift you can lift your toes up and shift or with the heel shifter you simply press down with your heel to upshift. I have no problem once I get passed the 1st --> 2nd. Seems I can't quite get that down without sticking in neutral.

Linked Brakes:

I love them! Not much else to say about them other than they're awesome

Stock Seat:

Another grip with Suzuki..Why oh why is there such a crappy seat on this machine?? I mean seriously I could only do ~50 miles without needing to get off and walk around. On my Vstar with the Mustang seat I could do ~110 miles with no problem..Suzuki needs to think about putting a better seat on their flagship cruiser..And unfortunatly I won't be able to replace the seat until spring since the site I want to buy the seat from won't have them until then . I could get a replacement seat in the interim but that's an expensive way to go since the new custom seat is going to be ~860 bucks..So I don't really want to spend that twice.

Stock Exhaust:

Since I've been putting some miles on the bike the sound of the stock exhaust has gotten so much better. It really has a throaty growl to it now. I'm going to really take my time to get a different exhaust because I don't want to mess up the look or the sound this bike has.

Rear Tire:

240..Huge rear tire. I've noticed that I have to commit a bit harder to get the bike into a turn. The stability once I'm in the turn is awesome however. I didn't really start diving corners until I hit 140 miles because I really wanted to make sure that the new tires were scuffed enough and all that gloss shit that gets painted on them was off. They came with Bridgstone tires so I'll be interested to how these last since I've heard that this type of Bridgestones wear a bit faster than other brands.

Sheeple Appeal:

It seems the sheeple like the bike. I've had several conversations over the last few days, one of which was just ridiculous that will be made into a post later this evening. I've had a lot of thumbs up on it and a few Harley guys turn their nose up..But overall I think the sheeple approve. /me rolls eyes.

Overall:

The main thing that impresses me about this bike is the manuverablity. This bike doesn't move like a bike close to 850lbs. It moves better than my Vstar which was over 200lbs lighter. I've only got 200 miles on it and I plan on putting a lot more. But I'm extremely impressed with this bike and barring anything major happening I don't see that changing.