Topic: Went down tonight :(

[silentone]

There's a DOT tyre code on the Cheng Shins.  The last three of four characters indicate the tyre's date of manufacture in the format  WWYY, where WW is week of the year, and YY is Year after 1999, or in format WWY S, where Y is year between 1990 - 1999, the absence of a special symbol S means Year is betwen 1980 - 1989

I had my wife check the tire code for me as I'm at the office right now... she says it reads, "DOT UYY2 4802" and there's a circle around the 4802. 

So (if I have this correct...) this would mean the tire was manufactured in the Cheng Shign factory in Meci Kong, Teipi, Taiwan the week of November 24-30, 2002?

I'd assume that the tube was at least as old.

[fixahonda]

Wow, very glad to hear you made it back to earth with minimal injuries. A tire deflating at speed is one of my bigger worries when I ride. It's so unpredictable.
 
I was riding with a friend once and the rear tire on his R1 went from normal to flat in the space of a few seconds. We were running about 80-85 on I40 in Durham, NC where the speed limit is 65 but 75 is what most likely won't get you run over in the slow lane.
From behind everything was normal and what seemed a second later the back of his bike was all over the place.
Luckily he made it to a stop without too much trouble.

For the Cheng Shin haters, his bike had a brand new Battlax on the rear. We couldn't find a puncture, but it was eaten up pretty good by the time he pulled off.

[bistromath]

I had a fleece sweater fly off my seat and into my sprocket doing about 80 on a deserted two-lane in California. Yeah, I'm a dumbass, but my dumb ass was numb and I needed the cushioning. =D Locked up the rear wheel and I skidded it off into the dirt, managed to keep the rubber side down, amazingly. Scared the ever-loving @($& out of me, though! 

It had sheared the chain tensioner bolt completely off on the left side, so after pulling the melted polartec out of my axle, to get it riding again I hammered a pair of pliers into the tensioner gap and broke off the handle. Rode it to a gas station, bought a pair of nail clippers (after looking around for everything else in the store), took the lever off the clippers and wedged those in instead of the pliers. Rode that a hundred miles to Fresno for the night, found a machine shop in the morning and drilled and retapped the tensioner. Miracle nothing else was damaged.

[shoemanII]

very glad you're ok. 

also had a rear blowout on my old r75/6, shot me into the oncoming lane but no traffic.  managed to stop w/out theatrics but what a ride from 55 to 0!  that was about 1980 or so.  just last year i high-sided off my trailbike and landed on my shoulder, arm and head.  very sore but no real injuries.  armored jacket, gloves, the whole deal.     

sounds like you don't ride in a T-shirt and sneakers, so you get to kiss the wife again.  there's something to be said about wearing good gear, all the time.  hope the bike's ok too. 
bobp