The Freddy Krueger Of Bike Flats

Having come into downtown from Westchester to finally make a long-delayed stop at Wabi Cycles (for some cable clamps my buddy Hap pointed me to that would fit 8-Ball’s top tube), I was in the homestretch having crossed Beaudry on 2nd Street for the last couple miles home.

Then out of nowhere the rear tire flatted. LOUDLY. It was so fast and so catastrophic there was no tell-tale “pssssssssh” of air escaping a tiny hole. Just a “BLAP!”and I was rolling on rim.

Dutifully I pulled off the road, turned 8-Ball wheels up and prepared to change out the damaged tube.

Then I saw the damage :

Whoa. With a side of WTF!?

The entire tire was slit wall to wall. It didn’t look like I ran over anything. It looked like the tire was attacked and assassinated. No way to repair that, it also looked like I was walking the rest of the way home. And I did.

Before I left I backtracked the scene of the crime, trying to find anything that might have inflicted such a fatal slicing… razor blade, machete, roadside explosive. Nothing.

Just an echoing kah-kah-kah ah-ah-ah in my mind.

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Will

Will Campbell arrived in town via the maternity ward at Good Sam Hospital way back in OneNineSixFour and has never stopped calling Los Angeles home. Presently he lives in Silver Lake with his wife Susan, their cat Rocky, dogs Terra and Hazel, and a red-eared slider turtle named Mater. Blogging since 2001, Will's web endeavors extend back to 1995 with laonstage.com, a comprehensive theater site that was well received but ever-short on capital (or a business model). The pinnacle of his online success (which speaks volumes) arrived in 1997, when much to his surprise, a hobby site he'd built called VisuaL.A. was named "best website" in Los Angeles magazine's annual "Best of L.A." issue. He enjoys experiencing (and writing about) pretty much anything creative, explorational and/or adventurous, loves his ebike, is a better tennis player than he is horr golfer, and a lover of all creatures great and small -- emphasis on "all."