Originally Posted by
grolby
Something that gets lost in the hysteria surrounding frame failures is that it ALL fails by cracking.
This is not true.
Originally Posted by
grolby
Any failure from fatigue always manifests as a crack, whether the material is aluminum, steel or titanium.
That may be true as far as it goes, but it's unreasonable to limit the discussion to only failure by fatigue. On two occasions I have suffered non-fatigue related frame failure while riding steel bicycles. In both cases I was able to continue the ride/race. On aluminum, that would not have been true, and my injuries would have almost certainly been much more severe.
Originally Posted by
grolby
...fatigue...is the source of the vast majority of frame failures, not impacts...
I don't think there's any way you could actually know that to be true.