I'm sure this question has been asked before so forgive me as I have very little oil knowledge. I am coming up to the 1600 km (Canada) first service and I bought the life time oil change form HD Dealer. This includes the regular non synthetic oil and I can have it changed as frequently as 4000km (2500 miles). I can pay the extra for the synthetic but should I bother since I can have the oil changed so often anyway. What are the other benefits to synthetic other than it lasts longer?

synthetic will withstand high temp better than conventional, but if it were me, if you can get it changed for no cost at 2500 mile intervals, i'd stick with conventional as opposed to paying the extra for synthetic.

but, you are going to get a lot of differing opinions on this. you may not want to listen to me anyways, i use car oil in my engine (m1 14w-50). many say this is the harbinger of the apocalypse.... i say $27 for a 5qt jug

Nope I'm not aware of this ever coming up.....

First things first. How many changes are considered a "lifetime"? Service packages are sold here for yearly intervals, but they only allow for two changes a year.

Even with regular oil, there's no need to change more frequently than the factory-recommended 5,000 miles. Your warranty will be intact, you'll spend less time at the dealer getting changes, and your bike will be fine.

The advantages to synthetic are that (as Skratch said) it's more stable at high temperatures, and also that it has better cold-flow capabilities.

Finally, how many miles a year do you ride, and how many years do you plan on keeping this bike? If you ride 3,000 miles a year and plan on trading in/up in 3 years, there's no point at all in synthetic, as you'll never see the benefits.

I've put 73k on a '04 in the last 5 yrs.
conventional

You are clearly flirting with disaster.

Clearly...
whatever

Hopefully you got the sarcasm.

People tend to really overthink these low-tech tractor engines with crazy oil-change schedules and esoteric blends of fluids.....Not to mention oil scavengers and the like.

On more than one forum I've seen people like you belittled for hating their bikes because they don't use the right stuff often enough. That was (I think) what Skratch was alluding to, and certainly what I was.

And it just seems like this is Oil Thread Day on the Harley forums.

We are in complete agreement.

you will do fine with conventional every 2500 miles , my cheep skate buddy puts over 125k on his bikes with 5k conventional changes ..

I'm curious as well , what they mean by lifetime .. If you ride 50k a year and keep it for 20 years , is it free ??

Oh he's OK, I think he's changed it and not used the same fluids for those 73k miles.