Sprint Filter P08 F1-85 Air Filter for Racing – Yamaha Tracer 9 / GT (2021–2024) SM212S F1-85

Put a Tracer 9 into a parts lookup and it offers three Sprint Filter elements for the same airbox, all of them correct. A fitment list is a mechanical answer: the part goes in the hole. Which of the three belongs in a touring motorcycle is a different question, and no catalogue answers it for you. The Sprint Filter SM212S F1-85 is the racing one of the three, and on a Tracer 9 or Tracer 9 GT it usually sits on the wrong side of a deliberate trade — worth explaining, not quietly selling.

Key Features

• P08 F1-85 racing medium in dry polyester: 85 microns of filtration, 15,000 litres per square metre per second
• Deliberately coarser than the standard P08 at 80 microns; flow and retention move in opposite directions
• Dry throughout, so no oil film reaches the throttle bodies or the intake sensors on a long day
• About twice as much medium presented to the incoming air as an ordinary performance element
• Uses the series airbox of the 2021–2024 machines untouched: no cutting, no adapters, no remap
• Washed, blown through and refitted for the life of the bike; the guarantee period is two years

Fits is not the same as suits

A Tracer 9 GT with panniers, a top box and a pillion aboard spends its days at motorway pace in road spray, on pass roads behind traffic, and on the gravel apron of whatever hotel the route ended at. It covers more ground in a season than the MT-09 and the XSR 900 sharing its airbox manage in two, and every kilometre pushes air, and all it carries, through the element. That is an argument about retention. It is not an argument about flow: touring load is hours at moderate throttle, and it never asks for a rate the standard filter cannot already deliver.

The two that do suit it

The rule behind the range reads in both directions — a finer weave holds back more and flows less, a coarser one the reverse — and neither end is the better filter. For mixed road touring the standard P08 is the medium written for the job, at 80 microns and 5,050 litres per square metre per second. Where the route regularly involves dust and unsealed approaches, the P14 goes much further at 14 microns and pays openly, flowing 1,800 litres. Beside those two the SM212S F1-85 surrenders filtration to reach a rate a loaded tourer will never call on, and asks considerably more money for it. It suits a Tracer that genuinely sees circuit use, and mismatches one that does not.

Care and cleaning

Servicing means taking dirt away, not renewing chemistry: nothing is ever applied to this element. Compressed air aimed outwards from the clean side is the routine and takes minutes. Warm water with a little mild detergent handles what air alone will not, rinsed until it runs clean. Then patience: open air only, no heat gun, no flame, and refit once it is dry to the core. The maintenance leaflet sits in the Downloads tab.

Fitment & Compatibility

For the Yamaha Tracer 9 and Tracer 9 GT, 2021 to 2024. Three motorcycles share this airbox and this element, the MT-09 / SP and the XSR 900 alongside the Tracer; the full list is in the Fitment tab.