wiscos, its not a matter of visually looking clean, its a matter of getting out the extremely small contaminates which will be in your filter along with within the oil. Modern engine manufacturing has limited the amount of metal bits and contaminates which will be found in the engine, but it still happens during manufacturing.
The very early oil change (50 miles) is done because it allows for some of the things that get knocked lose from early use of the engine to be removed. The next oil change (500 miles) is to do the very same thing as the first in which it is to remove some of the early contaminates from the oil that weren't removed in the first oil change.
Subsequent oil changes later in the life of the vehicle have more to do with lubrication and the lifespan of additives in the oil.
Ultimately, you have to make your own decision on whether you will follow the recommendations of the engineers who designed and built the engine or not. It is in the companies best interest to have their engines last many years into the future, which is why they set forth instructions on how to make it happen.
Linked from S&S Facebook page as per previous oil conversation.
http://www.facebook.com/notes/ss-cycle-inc/motor-break-in-recommendation/420391233414
