I a recent thread on the merits of aluminum and Ti, Col. Bunnyman suggested that eventually magnesium and carbon would become the wheel materials "du jour" in coming years. I was wondering if there is any merit to this statement. Does anyone out there know of any plans for magnesium on any part of the wheel.

The reason I ask is that I am probably the only slow twitcher to have actually ridden a magnesium frame bike regularly. In around 1991 Norsk Hydro Magnesium (out of Detroit, my dad engineered for them) and Kirk USA (I think that's what they were called) created a road frame and mountain frame made entirely of magnesium. They only made a handful for testing and R&D. The mountain frame made it into a few magazines with a picture of a caddy parked on the chainstays, which flexed but retained shape. Anyway, the frame ended up being way to heavy to justify the added strength, and the project was scrapped. So my dad, the Magnesium engineer, gave me the frame. It was heavy. But it was awesome, and I loved it.

Later in 1993, my dad brought home a set of cast Mag Wheels for his car (Mag wheels that were actually built out of MAgnesium, go figure). They were great for 10,000 miles until they developed stress fractures that would have eventually all given way. The answer was thicker metal to handle the loads. The material ended up not working for the application.

So I am wondering, does anyone know of anything magnesium in the works. It seems to me that it woud be too heavy to topple aluminum. Plus, even if it could be done, it would probably have to be cast in one piece, and look like a HED-3 or spinergy. I'd love to know if this is for real.