I've used the sealed chain on the OZ Rapide for quite awhile now. I'm sure it was Robert who first informed me of the advantages.
I wouldn't want to go back to the unsealed. I have worn out one of Robert's reconditioned front sprockets and am now working on the second, which still looks very good. That's a lot of miles covered tho. I've done 55,000 with that bike and most of it was with the 520 sealed setup in place.
The chains have lasted an easy 20,000 miles.
On rear sprockets, we used some anodized alloy ones that weren't horrible but did disappear quickly after the anodized portion wore through at about ten thousand miles.
At present I have a club steel 520 on the back, but it hasn't gone far yet, still as new.
It's too bad we can't run a full 530 sealed setup on there, or can we?
I run 530 sealed on the Commando, it fits right on the late model bikes. It just carves out a tiny bit of alloy on first time thru. At twelve thousand miles on the sprockets and chain there just isn't any visible wear. I think this setup could see me out for that bike, which doesn't do huge mileages, maybe 2500 per year on average.
That chain is a DID VM50 or 530 and it measures .970" for pin width.
The VM series is no longer available, it's been replaced by the stronger and narrower VX series at .917" pin width.
The unsealed 530 chain on the back up Rapide is .870"
So now we are only talking about 47 thou total extra width for a sealed x ring 530 vs unsealed. Split in half thats just 23 thou greater width from sprocket edge than an unsealed 530.
Might be able to scrape a little alloy out for that much extra clearance?
Presumably the .870 unsealed 530 has a wee bit of spare clearance already.
The needed extra clearance may already have been created unintentionally by 70 years of use!
Glen