I always thought road race bikes should NOT have o-ring chains. What I have heard is that the O-rings cause extra drag at high speeds and contribute to chain overheating. I have never read anything technical about it though.
Ive been the rear tire guy at Daytona 200... never felt any appreciable heat, in the chain, after 15-20 laps.
Unless its a pretty small bike I doubt it makes much difference (assuming your mortal). The only thing I use a non o ring on is the dirty bike and they are getting hard to find.
Used 415 non-Oring setup on my R3's, always made me laugh looking at them. Supposedly a Moto3 application, but looked more at home on bicycle. I never dyno'd back to back vs. the stock 520, but I recall someone did and it was worth .5 HP (not shabby on a 40 HP bike). I'm too lazy to try and keep one alive on a bigger bike- will stick with O/X rings and not worry about dirt/rain.
the heat produced by rubber on lubed metal is likely a lot less than the heat produced by un-lubed metal on metal. I will never use a standard chain on a RR bike, esp one with >50HP. aside from that, you probably won't save any $$ running a standard chain. ull need to replace it much more often.
For years I have only run the ERT chain on my R6's. Never had an issue, chain cost annually is just about the same as the ERV, being maybe 10% more. On my bike/s I can see 3-4whp additional on just the chain exchange, plus the acceleration difference is pretty huge. I replace the chains every weekend or 3 days, whichever comes first.
I try to replace my ERV3 annually and feel bad about it. ive gone 2 years on them with no issue. thats ~15-25 days per year. DID's chart says the ERT3 wears 7.5x faster than the ERV3. id bet u were changing the ERV3 way too often. https://didchain.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/2019-Chain-Spec-Sheet.pdf
Here's a good little thread with some data from @Tdub (I still miss him in the Tech section; RIP friend). No appreciable difference between chain types once warmed up. http://forums.13x.com/index.php?thr...nce-between-oring-and-non-oring-chain.282251/
It could be argued I change everything way too often, but they also never fail on me... I would change the ERV every season, which is like a normal persons half season, or even a little less. The ERT I change as stated every weekend or 3 days, whichever comes first. 3 of the ERT's a season is the same for me as an ERV and I like the benefits. It's definitely not for everyone, especially when some people have a hard time lubing chains to begin with... lol
