Titanium has more 'give' than aluminum?? I highly doubt that. It's stronger than both steel and aluminum. Depending on the alloy maybe (like aircraft quality), but titanium is used in applications where light weight is needed, but aluminum isn't strong enough. I haven't seen many titanium applications on mountain bikes, its usually aluminum, magnesium or carbon fiber.

With that being said, wow, those are some crazy rods. I remember being flabbergasted a while back when I first saw a 4G63 aluminum rod at ISP that was going in Peter Lee's race Evo. Didn't know they made Al rods at that time, but it was beefy as hell.

 

I'd say the aluminum rod save bearings because of the disprersion of force over the area of the rod itself. Its so large that it acts as a defuser.

 

You "doubt" that - or you know that??

Titanium is used much more often for MTB frames than Magnesium. Moots and Lightspeed are a couple good examples. . .

Titanium is strong at low wall thicknesses like aluminum, but has flexibility and springiness even better than steel. Moots, I believe it was, made a MTB frame that had 1.5" of rear suspension travel with NO JOINTS!! With the springy nature of the titanium tubing no joints were necessary.

The very highest end valve springs and spring for shocks that are made for racing purposes are made of Titanium. Titanium has MUCH more "give" or springiness than aluminum. When's the last time you saw an aluminum spring! Ti springs actually can last 4-8 times as long as steel springs before fatiguing.

EVOlutionary