It's a really good early warning system for component failure, I carried that over onto my bikes and cars, it has alerted me to various problems before failure many times over the years, it saved the 110 engine in my slim when the lifter started to go.

You just need a filter cutter and a vise to squeeze the oil out of a section of the filter medium so you can examine it for debris.

All the things that wear in your engine leave a trace, wear is inevitable but by checking the filter at every service you can tell when things change for the worse, plastic, aluminium, ferrous metal, all tell a tale.

Anyway, it's what I do, pic of the filter material from my last service, second oil change from near self destructing lifter, it's cleaned up nicely, touch wood.

On both my Sportsters I have washable filters. These are made from 'medical grade 304 SS micronic mesh' and contain a 'super strength neodymium rare earth magnet' for magnetic prefiltering of the oil. This allows me to check the filter and anything on the magnet quickly, even between oil changes at the cost of a cup full of oil. The filters are also on a remote mount out in the airflow for added cooling, and as anyone who has ever done a filter change on a Sportster knows, less mess.

On my Triumph, which uses an ordinary filter, I place magnets around the outside of the filter to attract and (hopefully) keep any metal pieces inside the filter. Oil changes are at 5k intervals.

One that can show up is,, when you see  yellow/white plastic like specks in the filter medium... If bike is in the 50-100,000 range might be time to check cam tensioners. I did.... see pic...Bike had 95,000 .. 2009 twin cam....

New Sprocket chain ,, was roughed up from  running over the tentioner metal insert...

New Oil pump ,,, a piece of tentioner lodged in oil pump ,, plus galling marks inside pump..

About 80,000 km would be a good time to have a look in there....

My ride now is coming up to 80,000, (no signs of yellow tentioner specks in filter medium)...YET...

Am organizing parts as we speak to replace tentioners.... And while in there throw in  a good bolt in cam,,,As you do....

The Woods 222 is coming up trumps at the moment....