Sprint Filter T12 Air Filter for Off-Road & Extreme – Yamaha XTZ 690 Tenere/Rally (2019–2026) CM148T12

The Tenere is named after a stretch of the Sahara, which is a great deal to write on the side of a road-legal motorcycle. Yamaha built the XTZ 690 to be worthy of it, then specified the intake for the life most of these machines lead: tarmac, with the interesting part at the end of it. The Sprint Filter T12 CM148T12 lets the specification catch up with the name — a dry polyester special non-woven filtering down to 7 microns, drawn up for off-road use, dust and conditions the manufacturer calls extreme.

Key Features

• Dry polyester special non-woven with no oil in it, and no oiling step at any point
• Filtration at 7 microns, the finest medium in the Sprint Filter range
• Rated airflow of 560 l/m²/sec, specified for off-road riding, dust and desert conditions
• Takes the place of the series element in an unmodified airbox, with no remap involved
• Cleaned with an air line and put back in, rather than ordered and thrown away
• Two years of warranty, counted from the day it was bought

A name and a specification that describe the same place

This airbox is shared with machines that never leave the road, so the element delivered in it had to suit all of them at once — a sensible average, and not a desert part. The medium is the one place a rider can undo that averaging: same housing, same seal, same fixings, a different fabric inside. Where the name on the tank describes the riding rather than the paint, this is the version that agrees with it.

What 7 microns cost, and when the P08 is the better buy

Finer media hold back more and pass less. That relationship runs the length of the range: the P08 weave filters at 80 microns with a rated 5,050 l/m²/sec, the water-repellent P037 at 37 microns and 4,500, the P14 non-woven at 14 microns and 1,800, and this T12 at 7 microns and 560. On a Tenere that lives on dust the trade is easy to defend: the flow is a known, fixed price, while what the medium keeps out cannot be recovered once it is inside. On one that commutes all week, tours on motorways and meets gravel twice a summer, it is the wrong end of the deal — the P08 is the better balance there, and the P037 answers water rather than dust. None of them makes a standard engine stronger; what changes is what gets past.

Care and cleaning

Service begins with compressed air fed in on the clean face, so the dirt exits through the dirty side. After a hard trip, wash the element in lukewarm water with a little mild detergent and rinse until the water runs clear. Leave it in moving air until it is dry all the way through, never on a heater and never over a flame, then refit it dry. Nothing about it is ever oiled. Sprint Filter design it to last as long as the motorcycle, so this is the whole maintenance story for the CM148T12; the manufacturer sheet is in the Downloads tab.

Fitment & Compatibility

Made for the Yamaha XTZ 690 Tenere and Tenere Rally of 2019 to 2026, fitting the unmodified series airbox in place of the original element. The rest of the XTZ 690 Tenere family shares it; the Fitment tab lists them in full.