Sprint Filter P08 Air Filter for Road & Track – Yamaha MT 125 (2021–2026) PM198S

An A1 machine is ridden differently from anything larger. A 125 has no surplus to spend, so much of the journey is spent with the throttle wide open — joining a dual carriageway, climbing a gradient, keeping pace. Intake resistance is therefore not an occasional condition on this motorcycle, it is the normal one. The Sprint Filter P08 PM198S will not turn the MT 125 into a bigger motorcycle, and no air filter can. What it does is keep that resistance low and, more usefully, keep it predictable between services, because a dry polyester element is cleaned and refitted rather than left to load up until the next scheduled replacement.

Key Features

• Nothing has to be cut, flashed or re-homologated: it replaces the original in the standard airbox
• The P08 polyester works dry: no oil, and nothing that can migrate onto the intake sensors
• Airflow rated at 5,050 litres per square metre per second, the weave filtering at 80 microns
• Twice the filtering area, near enough, of a comparable performance filter
• Normal service is a pass with the air line; the element is washable and goes back in
• Warranty: two years, beginning on the date of purchase

A small engine has nothing to lend

On a large twin a partially blocked filter is absorbed almost invisibly: the engine gives up a share of an output the rider was never using. On a 125 the same proportional loss comes out of a total that is being used, most of the time, in full. That is the honest case for looking after the intake on a machine this size — not a gain, but the absence of a slow, unannounced loss.

Dry medium, and what the number means

The P08 is a single layer of woven polyester, spun from threads of 22 microns and upwards, and it is used dry. Oiled cotton gauze works by making the air sticky, which puts a consumable film immediately upstream of the throttle body and the sensors. Sprint Filter measured a four-layer oiled cotton filter retaining 76.42 per cent of 100-micron test particles, against 93.13 per cent for the dry P08. Where conditions are harsher, Sprint Filter weave finer media — the water-repellent P037 at 37 microns, the P14 at 14 — and every step finer costs flow: the P08 passes 5,050 litres per square metre per second, the P14 passes 1,800. That is a trade, not a ranking, and for a road-going 125 the P08 sits at the sensible end of it.

Care and cleaning

Compressed air from the clean side outwards is the whole routine most of the time. When more has settled in than air can shift, lukewarm water with a mild detergent, rinsed until the water runs clear, deals with it. Then patience: open air until the element is dry through, with no heat and no flame to speed it up, before refitting it dry. Oil never enters the process. The Sprint Filter maintenance sheet is in the Downloads tab.

Fitment & Compatibility

Made for the Yamaha MT 125, 2021 to 2026, and a direct replacement in the standard airbox. The same PM198S element serves seven machines built around this airbox, across both the 125 and 155 versions of the engine; the full list is in the Fitment tab.