alarmguy
I might be misinterpreting your post. I think you are just ragging on anyone who does frequent changes.
I'm not sure why you'd even say that said:
I guess you took my post like I took yours when you said ..."(as HD owners tend to be way overkill on oil changes) " and that is what I was responding too. I did state that I might be misreading your post. But my post is an accurate of my viewpoint. You didnt mention what interval you thought was overkill but you feel HD owners over do oil changes.
I dont go down those roads either. So let me rephrase ... your thinking is if you can safely go longer and you feel others change to often and if anyone took a factual look at it.
Here is my viewpoint. The motor company (manufacturer of the bike) states its safe to change the oil and filter every 5000 miles. So to me, there arent any other facts that would change my mind to somehow think I know better. All my life, my boats, bikes and cars, to me, fluids are so cheap. I follow what the manufacture calls for and in most cases before hand.
I can say for sure, in decades I never owned anything with an engine (including lawnmowers) that remotely had an oil issue or even needed make up oil between changes. I always follow the change interval, again because to me, there is no reason not to.
A very long time ago, LONG time ago but has stuck with me for decades now.
I had a 2 door Honda Accord. Timing belt snapped prematurely, what a mess, valves smacked the pistons if I remember correctly, only engine issue I ever had in decades and of course not oil related. Anyway, back in those days, it was Castrol oil only for me and always changed before due. Mechanic came out of the shop and told me how amazed he was at how clean the engine was (internals) said he never saw anything like it, it was like a brand new engine. To this day its stuck in my head. So you asked for viewpoints and thoughts, these are mine. I enjoy taking care of not only the exterior of things but do what I can reasonably do to take care of the internals and part of that is trusting the owners manual plus some.
I just do not believe someone can factually state a reason not to trust the manual.