Stainless-steel alloys are today found on motorcycles mainly in the form of exhaust valves and exhaust systems. So well-adapted to their purpose have these alloys become that there is no longer even a memory of the exhaust-valve problems that plagued early motoring. Records of racing at England's great Brooklands Speedway show exhaust-valve failures as third-most-frequent behind drive-belt and spark-plug trouble. The chauffeurs of moneyed early motorists attended mandatory service schools, learning to regrind valve seatings every six weeks to restore the seal steadily destroyed by intense heat and corrosion.
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