Said pibbur who failed to pull off a proper cross-topic bane.

It's all about the flow, good sir. A skillful cross-topic bane is so subtle that people don't realize the conversation has been dramatically redirected until well after the fact. The truly epic ones don't involve "related chains", either— it's a sudden wild jump to something completely different (much like your introduction of tires). Wistful tip of the hat to the Universal Grandmaster of CTB, the much-missed RPGDot alum Pinnen.