RE: long ride-after the first oil change (Do the first few early, like 50 miles, 250, then normal changes intervals.) KEY WORD: SYNTHETIC OIL. Mobil1, Amzoil, etc. will definately keep your beast running cooler, longer due to the fact they're slippery-er, and stay together longer than regular petrolium oils. Harely dealers used to claim that Synthetics were too slippery, and the rollers in the bottom ends would just slide instead of roll. Now they have their own synthetic oil, and as usual, grossly over-priced. Huh. Maybe they were talking ferttilizer from male bovines...
Also the reason the british bike industry went belly-up was a combination of antiquated design, lax machining, bad electrics and the totally superior Japanese product for less money.