I like to descend fast some of the time. Longish straight clean roadway with little to no traffic. other times I do not. I'm like most the others in this thread, short duration brake applications only hard enough to slow my speed 5 mph and often enough to remain in control. I usually am in the drops during this and move to the hoods only as the grade lessons; moving tot he "sit up and beg" position to lose more speed. I spent part of a career driving big trucks with extra axles daily over mountains. I used the same methods of braking doing that. Often times on short moderate grade hills just riding it out is safe and air resistance will keep me to under 40. To give Magohn some credit here his area has some steep hills although not exactly long descents the pavement conditions are not exactly safe for quick descents. My recent ride around Lake Sammamish had a descent with a stop sign at the bottom and the pavement was rough. My usual getting up to 35-40 was not comfortable.