Thursday, July 2, 2009

Hello Kitty

A friend of mine who uses a bicycle as her primary transportation, but cannot manage anything mechanical, came to me on Sunday with a flat tire. I fixed the tube for her, but the tire itself was beyond salvation. Her bike's a street cruiser, and heavier than I'd like to lift, and it has huge fat tires with wide whitewalls. And she wanted a whitewall tire to replace the dead one.

She found a whitewall tire the next day. It has a Hello Kitty tread on it. It was made under liscence (sic) from Sanrio. The friend is mortified, and extremely grateful to the cycling gods that the tires mostly hidden by the huge fat fender. I don't think it's all that bad; it's kind of cute. I can't wait to see her tracks after a rain, or after she's ridden through a patch of mud.

I think it's not so bad, mostly because the friend is so embarrassed by it. For a six yer old girl (who'd NEVER be tall enough to use it), such a tire would be appropriate. For an adult? Well, I'm not sure I want to meet the woman, or even the teen, who would actually WANT a Hello Kitty bicycle tire.

I have photographic evidence, but I can't find the darned card reader. When I do find it, I'll post a photo or two.

5 comments:

Gaina said...

I know people who would mug you for HK tires. In fact they'd probably steal the bike! LOL

Victor Kellar said...

She ride the bike through some dark oil or even ink then leave the Mark of Kitty all over town

Kate J said...

Personally, I think it's a consiracy by HK to take over the world. One day soon we'll all wake up to find that darned cat is in charge!

Neil said...

Gaina: she bought a beautiful maroon bicycle and had it painted flat John Deere green, because she likes green. It's a street cruiser, and weighs about 13 metric tonnes, and she is EXTREMELY embarrassed by the HK tread pattern.

I, on the other hand, think it's a fitting punishment for anyone who would own such a bicycle. And it's the least evil mark ofthe beast I can imagine.

Victor: I'd love to see her leaving its mark all over. I wonder if she'd mind some permanent black ink on her tire; that WOULD be fun, wouldn't it?

Kate: If that darned (HK) cat takes over the world, would Hayley Mills be trying to own Hello Kitty?

Kate J said...

He Neil, I saw a comment you made to my own blog, about Canada and old cars.
I think you missed my point, I like those old cars, and took a lot of photos of them in junkyards, it wasn't meant as a slur on Saskatchewan, or Canada in general. I've driven a lot of what we Brits affectionately call "old bangers" in my time, and in fact my partner and I have one (dating to 1965) which we have lovingly restored! I fully appreciate that people in Canada need cars (especially with trains that only run every 2 days!) and indeed where I live, in a very rural area of Wales, I couldn't manage without my car at all. No, it most certainly wasn't meant as a slur, just rather sad to see those old cars rotting.