I don't know about other people, but the aluminum shoes that come with the RC8B were a massive pain for me, they heated up and rolled over so much that my clutch would usually stick on by the end of each day.
For a 3 shoe, the Dynamite Max Life shoes are amazing, last a while yet have great bite with 1.0 springs.
As for bearing life, the buck-a-bearing's that my LHS sells usually go notchy after one day, spend a bit more on better bearings and you'll have no problems.