Sprint Filter P08 Air Filter for Road & Track – Suzuki V-Strom 1050XT (2020–2026) PM253S

The XT is the version that actually gets loaded. Panniers, a top box, a pillion, a full tank and a long day of summer heat: that is the duty cycle the wire wheels and extra equipment were sold for, and the one that asks most of the intake. The honest case for the Sprint Filter P08 PM253S is not power — an element sitting in a standard airbox does not give a touring twin more of that. It is that the restriction the filter puts in the engine's way stays close to where it started right through the interval, and can be reset with an air line whenever you choose rather than at a mileage printed in a book.

Key Features

• 80 microns of filtration; 5,050 litres per square metre per second
• About twice the filtering surface of other performance filters
• Dry polyester, never oiled — no film upstream of the intake sensors
• Replaces the standard element directly; airbox untouched, map unchanged
• Cleaned with compressed air, washable, used again rather than binned
• Two years of warranty, from the date of purchase

Restriction that stays where it started

A paper element begins the interval clean and ends it loaded, and the interval itself is a compromise: long enough to be practical, short enough that the worst day is still acceptable. Fully laden touring keeps the engine at the busy end of its map for hours, in summer air that is already thin — exactly when the tail of that interval is least welcome. The P08 starts with roughly twice the filtering surface of other performance filters, so a given quantity of dust covers a smaller share of it, and a few minutes with compressed air puts the element back where it began. Nothing dramatic happens on the day you clean it. What changes is how many days you spend at the wrong end of the interval.

The weave, and the trade behind it

The medium is a single layer of woven polyester, spun from threads of 22 microns and upwards, and it works dry — nothing to re-oil, nothing to migrate onto the air-flow sensor. Sprint Filter's comparison has the dry P08 holding 93.13 per cent of 100-micron test particles, against 76.42 per cent for four-layer oiled cotton. The finer media exist for harder air and each buys retention with flow: P037 at 37 microns, P14 at 14, T12 at 7 microns and 560 litres per square metre per second where the P08 passes 5,050. Choose by the air you ride in, not by the smaller number.

Care and cleaning

Normal service is compressed air through the PM253S from the clean side outwards, as often as a trip demands. Where that leaves something behind, wash the element in lukewarm water with a mild detergent, rinsing until the water runs clear. Dry it completely in open air — never with heat, never with a flame — and refit it dry. The maintenance sheet is in the Downloads tab.

Fitment & Compatibility

Made for the Suzuki V-Strom 1050XT, 2020 to 2026, as a direct replacement in the standard airbox. The same element serves four machines: the V-Strom 1050 and V-Strom 1050XT from 2020, and the V-Strom 1000 and 1000XT of the previous generation up to 2019. The full list is in the Fitment tab.