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With the pedals and crappy wheels that I got free I weighed in right at 20lbs even.
Magnesium frames is starting to catch on since they improve on the alloys to address the brittleness and corrosion concerns. My frame was made in Russia in some military factory. The alloy blend is unknown.
It is the lightest structural metal currently available in the world. Its approximately 34% lighter by volume than aluminum and 50% lighter than titanium. Besides light-weight construction, a few of the other advantages that magnesium offers are: excellent fatigue resistance, denting and buckling resistance, and the highest known damping capacity of any structural metal. The result is a much smoother ride than any other material out there.
Its no secret amongst the inner sanctum of bicycle fame builders and designers around the world that magnesium could make an amazingly rideable, high-performance bicycle. First, though, a few key issues needed to be overcome: how to extrude the perfect magnesium tubes, weld these tubes correctly, and fine-tune the ride qualities.
Damping is a measure of the rate at which unforced vibration disappears, and is an intrinsic property of the material. Because magnesium has the highest known damping capacity of any structural metal - as much as 10 times greater than steel, titanium, or aluminum - the ride is truly amazing. Vibration from the road literally disappears within the structure of the frame and never reaches the rider. For this same reason, magnesium is used in the high-tech world of aerospace hardware; they have discovered that magnesium offers the best platform on which to mount sensitive electronic equipment, as it is so "quiet".
Being able to ride longer and with less fatigue are the direct benefits, but the indirect benefits of magnesium might be even more important. Because vibration is not transferred through the frame, the fatigue life is nearly immeasurable. A magnesium bike will keep the exceptional initial ride qualities longer than anything else available on the market today.
Last edited by BATMAN; 01-20-2010 at 11:44 AM.
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