Really? We're still at that old chestnut? Shaving a hundred grammes off a frame while the rider piles on the pounds?

That's not entirely true. GT used to plastic ball bead burnish their frames, don't know if they still do, but it's essentially the same process, carried out with a softer impingement material to slightly lower deformations.

Basically every ductile engineering material would benefit from a shotpeening operation of some type. Yes, Unterhausen it really works, otherwise no-one would invest the time or effort in doing it, especially not in aerospace, where it's routine and often fundamental. It also lowers the incidence of stress corrosion cracking and corrosion rates. The important aspect is that all the surface is worked plastically and none of that material is removed by the impingement material. Thats why polished steel balls or plastic beads work wonderfully well on steels and aluminium respectively.

Increases in direct UTS are rare and low, as the total volume of material work hardened is very low, but in practical terms a structure with an extended or raised fatigue life or limit gives the illusion of greater strength.