Synthetic or not it's 5,000 miles/8,000 km for me.

 

Always good to follow the HD recommendations, but you can do whatever you want.

 

What happens to oil sitting in the oil pan when the bike is sitting in the garage? I don't understand why someone would need to change the oil once a year if they only rode it for 2000 miles.

I guess maybe insects crawl in there and build nests.

 

Condensation mostly but also that usely means alot of short trips which is harder on oil than long rides.

 

I'm saprised that Harley recommended 5000 mile changes when cars recommend less. Bikes are harder on oil than cars. I once let a car go 8000 miles do to bad leg and 150 mile daily drive. Filter started to bypass.

 

more is always better in this case !

 

do mine evry 5000 as well.

 

With full synthetic oil, my truck recommends 7500 miles, my small compact car recommends 7500 miles and my SUV recommends 10,000 miles. Extended oil service for newer cars appears to be norm, not the exception.

 

Every 2500 to max 4000 on conventional/semi syn for me. About 3 times a year

 

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Remember,the fact is vehicle mfgs are in the biz to sell vehicles which are mech so they/vehicle mfg's are going to rec an oil maint schd that will get them past warranty period of 3/36 or 10/100k .

But they are not going rec whats best to obtain max srvc life from the motor trans prim or x-fer case etc because that will hurt their bottom line making profit.

If you care about the big bucks you spent on your suv then spenf $30-40 1x to send an oil sample with 10k miles on it to blackstone to see what cond the oil is really in so you really know for sure if 10k oil change is doing the motor justice or not.

And even if it were still at acceptable limits post testing if it were my new suv i'd not run any std syn 10k miles unless it was something like M1s extended perf full oil .

Thats because their extended perf line of oil is specifically designed & forumlated with a more robust additive pkg containing the additional detergent along with more anti wear & anti corrosion agents required to go the additional miles to the next oil change.

I have been using m1's ex perf full syn oil in my wifes car since new/1st oil change that supposed to go 15k miles or 1 yr whichever comes 1st ,but no matter i wont go past 10k miles on it.

Doing that still reduced oil changes by 50% and when i buy the ext perf m1 on sale for only $35 for a 5qt+ jug inc a premium bosh oil filter too the cost is low.

And the oil looks plenty nasty @ 10k miles showing some lvl of dirt is getting past filtration on the intake side & or x-amount of combustion gases are getting past the rings into the crankcase during combustion process too both contaminating the oil earlier/faster negating and earlier oil change then M1's rec 15k miles or 1yr due to the oil being contaminated prematurely.

And even though the oil looks nasty being very dirty pitch black it may in fact still pass testing ok ,but i'd want to get it out of the motor @ 10k miles anyway because it's only costs $35 inc filter to change the oil every 10k miles so why not.

The car just turned 100k miles and the motor still runs as good & quiet as when new not using any more oil then it did in earlier lifer either.

Another thing to consider is when talking these high oil change rec's on oils like for M1's extended perf (15k miles or 1yr) bank on the motors having very good intake filtering along with good ring seal like the dyno mules and road cars/trucks they choose to use in real world testing .

Good intake filtering & good ring seal collectively help reduce the lvl of dirt & combustion chamber gases that get into the motor & crankcase oil which is an important piece of the puzzle thats always overlooked when talking extended oil changes .

And the problem is thats not always the case for the avg vehicle on the road esp when they get enough miles/age to where seals on intake side arent as tight anymore and ring seal isnt quite as good either which collectively together will reduce a 10k-15k oil change rec on full syn to 6k-8k in a heartbeat due to additional dirt intake prematurely contaminating the oil thus reducing the oil's srv'c life.

So bottom line is when intake side or ring seal isnt best case thats when the oil will be contaminated / get dirty faster which is something you need to realize when talking long extended oil change period and 1 of the reasons i choose to go a MAX of 10k miles on M1's rec 15k mile ext perf full syn oil in the wife's car.

Scott