Originally Posted by fmw

I remember the demonstration a physics professor made in one of our college classes for non-majors. He put a quarter and a down feather in a 5 goot long glass tube and evacuated it. Then he flipped the tube end over end and the quarter and feather both reached the other side of the tube at the same time. The point was that air resistance is the issue, not the pull of gravity. Acceleration in a vacuum happens at 32 ft per second per second at sea level, regardless of the mass of the object.

Weight isn't the issue for descending on a bicycle. Air resistance is. To a small extent you could say that wheel bearings bear on the issue (friction) but not much. If you want to coast faster gaining weight won't help. But getting more aerodynamic will. If you are descending under power, then applying more power is the issue just like it is for climbing.

You can't blame it on the bike.