Oh yeah ... that fear caused my lack of confidence before the crash. Expecially when I had a friend feel the rim on my front wheel after a particularly steep descent, and tell me that when my rim gets as hot as mine was (I could have fried an egg on it!), I am running a serious risk of blowing out my front tire. My rim was that hot because of brake usage ... or over-usage.

After that, especially on hot days, and especially on long descents, I would stop partway down to let my rims cool.