This material must also be processed before it shelf hardens.
Matt, what is "shelf hardening"?
I agree that you can't justify maintaining production status of something you are selling just a dozen or so a year on. While the romanticists of the sport would want to believe that the manufacturers have some moral obligation to support the things we love, it's sometimes just not good business sense to do so.
Also known as age hardening. Check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_hardening. It is particularly prevalent in areas where there are large changes in temperature. Age (or shelf) hardening of aluminum changes it's bending characteristics and makes the section more brittle.
In a previous life I ran a company that curved and bent metals for all sorts of applications. One was aluminum bull bars for cars and trucks. A pack of ally tube that was open at one end and left outside for a month over summer was useless for bending even though it looked fine. The covered end would be fine but the end that was exposed to the weather would snap like a dry twig. Given time, the entire length would be the same even when it was covered.
