Originally Posted by
cyccommute
Indeed it will be revealing. They'll find that the aluminum bends easily in one direction but doesn't bend back all that well. And if you try to bend it back the aluminum will tear not snap. Aluminum is not a brittle material. Steel is.
And neither of those properties are a bad thing with proper design.
With "brittle" comes higher strength, which means it takes a lot more to cause a failure. Al is not as strong, but as you mention, is less brittle. All of these "strengths" and "weaknesses" of each material are easily addressed by designers and engineers. The are not generalities you can apply to say material X is good for bikes and material Y is bad.