[adouglas]

Something important to remember about Palmer that you won't find elsewhere (Mid-O, for instance) is that with the exception of Turn 9 (the super-cambered right-hand bowl) every one of he heavy braking zones is steep uphill. At the speed you were traveling it really is possible to stay off the brakes completely. You can even go faster without braking.

Learning to brake properly is a critical skill (says the guy who just busted his collarbone as the direct result of a braking error). It's also an amazing tool once you discover how to trail brake. One of the most eye-opening discoveries you'll make is how braking affects the chassis and handling. That only starts to make sense once you begin going fast enough for it to matter. As speeds increase, braking has an ever-increasing impact that goes far beyond just slowing the bike down. My crash happened not because I ran off or didn't slow enough... it happened because my braking error upset the chassis. If I'd braked correctly at the limit, I would have made the corner.

One of the Mid-O exercises -- and my favorite from my trip there -- is the No-Brake Drill. You ride laps without touching the brakes at all. It really teaches you how to be smooth and also opens your eyes to how the bike behaves differently in corners when you don't brake.

Read, learn, and think about how all this stuff fits together. Nothing is discrete.

(adouglas turns and walks into the sunset, softly singing "the foot bone's connected to the shin bone, the shin bone's connected to the knee bone....")