as far as I'm aware, the only thing that changes with wall thickness is how easily the tubing will buckle. A rod will bend, but tubing will fold on itself.
Incorrect. The strength and stiffness of a round thin-walled tube is linearly proportional to its thickness. Double the thickness and you double the strength and stiffness. What is true is that increasing the diameter has a more dramatic impact. The strength increases as the square of the diameter and the stiffness increases as the cube of the diameter. Hence the dramatic increase in frame stiffness with oversized tubing.
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