Sprint Filter P08 Air Filter for Road & Track – Honda CB1000R (2008–2017) CM96S

Take the fairing off a litre-class four and something disappears with it: the forward-facing ducts that pack a superbike's airbox with pressurised air at speed. The CB1000R has none. Its intake draws from the space under the tank at whatever pressure the day offers, in town and on the motorway alike. There is no hidden reserve to unlock, so the question is not what an element could flow on a bench, but how steadily it passes what this engine actually draws.

Key Features

• Dry woven polyester, single layer, never oiled — nothing on it can reach the intake sensors
• Filtration at 80 µm with a rated flow of 5,050 l/m²/sec, Sprint Filter's road and track medium
• Fibre diameter starts at ø 22 microns; the openings between the threads are set by the weave
• Serviced with air rather than swapped out, and sized to last as long as the motorcycle
• Drops into the standard airbox where the paper panel sat — no cutting, no adapters, no remap
• Holds 93.13 % of 100-micron particles where four-layer oiled cotton managed 76.42 %

An intake that runs at ambient pressure

On a naked bike the filter is one restriction among several, and not the tightest. Throttle plates, cam timing and the fuelling map all sit ahead of it, and Honda set this engine's output with those, not with the panel in the airbox. So, plainly: a replacement element does not make a standard motorcycle noticeably more powerful, and a CB1000R fitted with one will not pull harder up a slip road. What changes is the panel itself. The paper item that came out was a consumable by design: its resistance climbs as it fills, and it is binned when someone decides it has climbed far enough.

The half of the interval worth paying for

Woven polyester is not consumable in that sense. It starts at a low resistance, collects on its surface where the dirt can be seen and removed, and after a clean returns close to where it began — so the second half of a service interval resembles the first far more than with paper. Filtration is not the price of that: on 100-micron particles the P08 held 93.13 % against four-layer oiled cotton's 76.42 %, with nothing wet on it to be drawn onto a sensor. Over ten model years of production that adds up to a service line which is inspected rather than reordered.

Care and cleaning

Servicing the CM96S is mostly compressed air, blown at the clean, engine-facing side so the dirt leaves the way it arrived. After a winter or a wet tour, warm water and a drop of mild washing-up liquid shifts what air will not; rinse until the run-off is clear. Drying happens in air and in its own time — never with a heat gun, a radiator or a flame, all of which damage polyester. Refit it dry, with no oil or spray. The maintenance sheet sits in the Downloads tab; the warranty period is two years.

Fitment & Compatibility

Cut for the airbox of the Honda CB1000R built from 2008 to 2017 — the first-generation naked; the 2018-on machine takes a different element. It is shared with the half-faired CBF1000F of 2010 to 2015; both are listed in the Fitment tab.