Sprint Filter P08 Air Filter for Road & Track – Fantic Motor Caballero (2021–2026) SM249S

A 500 scrambler is styled for dirt and ridden, for the most part, on tarmac. That gap between silhouette and duty cycle is worth being honest about when choosing an air filter, because it is the duty cycle that the element has to suit. For the great majority of Caballero owners the standard woven panel is not the entry-level compromise in this range — it is the part that matches the roads the bike actually sees.

Key Features

• Woven polyester filtering at 80 microns, rated at 5,050 l/m²/sec
• Retention of 93.13 % measured on 100-micron particles
• Dry from the packet and dry after every wash — no oiling at any stage
• Direct fit in the standard Caballero airbox: no cutting, no adapter, no remap
• Around twice the filtering surface of a conventional flat element
• Cleaned and refitted instead of replaced, with two years of warranty from purchase

Matching the part to the riding

Sprint Filter lists four different media for this airbox, which invites the assumption that the finer ones are upgrades and this one is the floor. They are not arranged that way. A finer medium holds more and flows less, and both halves of that sentence apply every day, not only on the days the finer medium is needed. On a machine that spends its weeks on sealed roads and its weekends on gravel tracks that are dusty for a few weeks a year, the standard weave is the balanced choice, and the SM249S is that weave.

The economics of a bike ridden in seasons

A Caballero is, for many owners, a fair-weather machine: parked for months, then ridden hard for a few. A paper element does not care about that pattern and is replaced on kilometres or on time regardless. A washable panel changes the arithmetic — it is cleaned when the season ends and put back for the next one, and the same part carries several years of riding. None of that is power: in an unmodified airbox this element leaves a standard Caballero exactly as strong as it was. What it gives is a lower and, across the service interval, steadier intake restriction, plus one item permanently off the consumables list.

Care and cleaning

Compressed air on the clean face of the SM249S, worked outwards, handles the routine service and most end-of-season cleaning. When the weave stays grey, lukewarm water with a mild detergent finishes it; rinse until the runoff is clear. Drying is done in moving air at room temperature only — heat guns, radiators and flames damage the medium before the damage can be seen. It goes back in dry, with nothing applied. Sprint Filter's maintenance sheet is in the Downloads tab.

Fitment & Compatibility

Made for the Fantic Motor Caballero of 2021–2026, seated in the series airbox without modification. This code is listed for that one machine, and all four media for this housing carry the same single-machine fitment. Check your build year in the Fitment tab.