Sprint Filter P08 Air Filter for Road & Track – BMW R 1200 R (2013–2018) PM142S

The R 1200 R shows its workings. Cylinders out in the wind, shaft drive on view, no fairing to hide behind — the design argument is that you should be able to see how the thing operates. That leads to a reasonable but mistaken assumption about the air: that an engine this exposed must breathe exposed air. It does not. The intake draws from high beneath the tank, out of a sealed box well away from the spray and grit at cylinder height, and what reaches the filter is settled by where that mouth sits, not by how little bodywork the motorcycle has. PM142S is the element that goes into that box.

Key Features

• Single-layer polyester weave, run dry, with no oil film anywhere upstream of the throttle bodies
• Rated at 5,050 l/m²/sec through an 80 µm aperture — Sprint Filter's road and track specification
• Fibre diameter starts at ø 22 microns; filtration happens at the mesh, which is a different number
• Roughly double the filter area of other performance elements, packed into the original frame
• Replaces the paper panel directly: no airbox work, no cutting, no change to the fuelling
• Washable, made to last as long as the motorcycle does, two years of warranty from purchase

A sealed box on an open motorcycle

Everything the intake sees has come through an inlet the factory placed on purpose, and that placement is most of the filter's job description. Road spray thrown up by the front wheel, the grit that collects on the cylinder heads, the film that settles across a naked bike's frame: none of it is what this element deals with. It deals with what is suspended in the air at tank height, which is finer, steadier and much harder to judge by looking at the motorcycle. A clean-looking bike says nothing whatever about the panel inside it.

What changes and what does not

To be plain about it, an element inside the standard airbox is not a power part, and a standard R 1200 R will not feel stronger for having one. Airbox volume, ducting, throttle bodies and mapping were developed together with a filter in the middle of them. What a woven element changes is the behaviour of that one item over time. A paper panel begins at its lowest restriction and rises from there until it is thrown away; this one is brought back to its starting condition with an air line, as often as you like, for as long as the motorcycle lasts.

Care and cleaning

Take it out, put an air line to the clean face and work outward until the weave is clear again. That covers most services. When a winter of salt and damp has left a film that air cannot move, wash the element in warm water with a mild detergent and rinse it until nothing more comes away. Drying happens in moving air and in nothing else, because heat is what damages polyester — no hot air gun, no radiator, no flame. Refit it dry. The maintenance sheet is in the Downloads tab.

Fitment & Compatibility

Made for the BMW R 1200 R of 2013 to 2018. Nine boxers in all sit on this part number, from the GS to the RT and across both the 1200 and the 1250 generations; each is listed with its years in the Fitment tab.