I'm not sure if there are any tests to tell the various alloys appart. When they talk about magnesium bike frames it's often a particular aluminium-magnesium alloy; tubes made from various factories to set standards. Magnesium makes the alloy stronger and stiffer. I don't know how much of an advantage magnesium would be in one of the old straight stitcher models, the thick casting of the body added a lot to it's stability and sturdiness. I know the old magnesium frames didn't hold up in the long run, and I don't know what they did to improve on it (old meaning ca. 1980). Every other year I read there are lots of research and improvements on this, but I have yet to see a magnesium bike frame in front of me. On the other hand there are lots of aluminium and carbon frames, very few titanium frames, but still quite a lot carbon steel tubing on the roads. I'm side tracking quite a bit here, but experimentations with metals often have parallel lines of development.
Last edited by Mickey2; 10-18-2017 at 09:10 AM.