Sprint Filter P14 Air Filter for Dusty Conditions – Yamaha XSR 900 (2022–2023) SM212P14

The XSR 900 is a Sunday motorcycle in the best sense, and Sunday motorcycles are ridden in company. That is worth a thought before picking a filter medium, because the second bike in a line does not breathe the same air as the first. On a dry mountain road a group of six lifts a fine haze off the surface that hangs between the bends, and everyone behind the leader rides through it. Add the loose car park at the coffee stop. The SM212P14 is specified for that: a dry special nonwoven filtering at 14 microns against the 80 microns of the standard P08 weave, passing 1,800 litres per square metre per second where the P08 flows 5,050.

Key Features

• Dry special nonwoven medium, filtration rated at 14 microns
• Flow rating of 1,800 litres per square metre per second, against 5,050 for the coarser P08 in the same airbox
• Completely free of oil, so the element cannot contaminate the sensors downstream of it
• Built to the series airbox of the 2022–2023 XSR 900: the stock element comes out, this goes in, the mapping is left alone
• Regenerated with compressed air and used again instead of replaced, with a life designed to match the bike's
• The manufacturer's cover runs for two years from the date of purchase

The air behind the bike in front

Riding at the back of a group is the part of the argument nobody weighs up. The heavy grit kicked up by the tyres ahead drops out within a second or two, but the fine fraction it lifts does not; on a warm, windless day it stays over the road surface long enough for the next four riders to pull it into their airboxes. The same goes for the unsealed lay-by and the gravel forecourt. None of it is dramatic or audible, which is why it is easy to leave out of the decision. Dropping the rating from 80 microns to 14 is aimed at this fraction.

Choosing between the two media

Being fair about it: the P14 is not an upgrade over the P08, it is a different setting of the same dial. A finer medium holds back more and lets less through, and that applies in both directions. If your XSR 900 is mainly a solo bike on clean, well-kept roads and you want the largest reserve of air for a hard run through the gears, the P08 at 80 microns and 5,050 litres is the better balanced answer, and it fits this airbox too. Below the P14 the ladder continues to the T12 at 7 microns and 560 litres, which would be plainly wrong here.

Care and cleaning

Nothing about the SM212P14 needs to be oiled, which keeps its maintenance a dry, five-minute job. Remove it, then send compressed air through the mat from the clean face so the dirt is driven back out the way it entered. Water is allowed when needed: lukewarm, with a little mild washing-up liquid, rinsed off well. Dry it in open air alone — heat guns and flames ruin the medium — and fit it only once dry. Sprint Filter's cleaning instructions are in the Downloads tab.

Fitment & Compatibility

For the Yamaha XSR 900 built in 2022 and 2023. Three machines share this airbox and this element — the XSR 900, the MT-09 / SP and the Tracer 9 / GT — with the full list in the Fitment tab.