Originally Posted by
sced
I sure Mr. Brandt did a good job at the time, but when talking about mechanical reliability, which is a notoriously complicated subject, it would be folly to infer anything from 30-year old or even last week's FEA without physical verification.
People have been working with metals for thousands of years - literally.
Spoked wheels have been in widespread use under much more demanding conditions than bicycles for centuries - especially in the last century, when they've been used by motorized vehicles such as automobiles and motorcycles.
The alloys used on bikes are VERY common, most probably having been around 50+ years. They might have been "exotic" and rare 50+ years ago, but there were available and their properties were already well-known.
Steam engines have been around over 200 years, railroads have been around almost two hundered years, metal ships over 150, automobiles and planes over 100. What makes you think mechanical reliability of rotating machinery wasn't WELL understood by about 1890 or so?