Sprint Filter P08 F1-85 Air Filter for Racing – BMW K 1600 GT (2010–2019) PM187S F1-85

Fit the highest-flowing element Sprint Filter makes to a K 1600 GT and the motorcycle's limits stay exactly where they were. They are not at the intake. A fully faired six-cylinder tourer of this weight is held by mass when it accelerates and by the wall of air its bodywork pushes when it does not, and no filter touches either, at any flow rating and any price. PM187S F1-85 has a real specification: 85 µm, a rated 15,000 l/m²/sec, dry woven polyester in the standard housing. It is also the element on this list with the least to offer a GT.

Key Features

• Woven dry polyester at 85 microns, the most open medium in the Sprint Filter range
• 15,000 l/m²/sec of rated flow, three times the standard element's 5,050
• No oil in the medium when new and none permitted after washing
• Twice the filtering area of a typical performance element, near enough
• A drop-in for the series airbox on every K 1600 variant, no work on the housing
• Restored with compressed air rather than replaced; two years of warranty from purchase

The constraints that actually bind

A heavy machine spends its acceleration on its own mass; a wide fairing spends its top end on the air it has to shove aside. Those two facts describe most of what a K 1600 GT does, and neither is a breathing problem. It follows that a rating three times the standard one has nothing here to push against: the extra capacity is genuine, it is simply never called for. The general statement belongs in the same breath: an element dropped into an unmodified airbox does not make a series motorcycle noticeably stronger, and the heaviest machines in the catalogue show that most plainly.

Paying for capacity, and naming it

This is the dearest of the three elements listed for this housing, well above the standard weave and further above the dust medium, and the whole difference is a rate. That is a fair trade in exactly one situation: when an engine is asked for everything it can take, repeatedly, somewhere that permits it. A GT owner who cannot describe such a use is better served by the P08: a rated 5,050 l/m²/sec, 93.13 per cent retention against 100-micron particles, and the same washing and refitting. Buying the racing weave for touring is buying headroom above a ceiling that is never approached.

Care and cleaning

Blow the PM187S F1-85 through from the clean side with a compressor so the dirt leaves by the face that took it in. Where a film has built up that air will not remove, wash it in lukewarm water with mild detergent and rinse until the run-off is clear. Then let it dry in circulating air — heat destroys polyester, so radiators, heat guns and flames are out — and refit it dry, without oil or dressing. The maintenance sheet sits under the Downloads tab.

Fitment & Compatibility

For the BMW K 1600 GT built from 2010 to 2019, seated in the standard airbox without modification. A single part number spans a decade of production unchanged. The GTL, the GTL Exclusive and the Bagger take the same element; all four appear in the Fitment tab with their dates.