I ride my bike pretty hard and aggressive most of the time and I alway use Synthetic......but I still change it every 2,500 miles.
Fingers crossed....but hopefully the Alaska trip will happen next summer. It will be 8,000 miles, round trip. We are planning to change the oil and filter, using top grade synthetic just before departure.....then change it in Fairbanks (after running up to Dead Horse). Just one oil change, with top-offs. I suppose that will be about 4k miles an OCI. I am very comfortable with that.
We plan to change the oil in the autoparts store parking lot. If we have to buy a cheap oil drain pan for $5....we will. I plan to haul the oil right back in the store for recycling.