Sprint Filter P08 Air Filter for Road & Track – Kawasaki ZH2 (2020–2026) PM197S

On nearly every motorcycle the air filter is the last thing between the outside world and the engine. On the ZH2 it is the last thing before the supercharger. The blown four draws through this panel and hands everything it has taken to an impeller, and only then does any of it reach a cylinder. That detail changes what the medium is being asked to do: whatever the cloth passes does not simply arrive at a valve, it goes through the fastest-turning component on the motorcycle first. The PM197S is the standard dry polyester panel for that airbox, and here the filtration half of its specification is the interesting one.

Key Features

• Single-layer woven polyester, run dry — no oil is used on it and none should be added
• Rated at 80 microns with 5,050 l/m²/sec of air flow
• 93.13 % measured retention of 100-micron particles, against 76.42 % for oiled cotton
• Roughly twice the filtering surface of other performance elements
• Takes the paper panel's place in the series airbox — nothing cut, nothing remapped
• Washed and refitted for the life of the bike, with two years of warranty

A filter with a compressor behind it

Forced induction puts hardware in the path that a naturally aspirated engine does not have, and all of it sits downstream of this panel. That is an argument for reading the retention figure as the headline rather than the footnote, and for a dry medium: nothing can be carried off a cloth that has no oil on it. It is also an argument for care on refitting. A supercharged intake is a sealed, pressurised path, and it stays sealed only if the element is seated in its groove with the lid clamped properly down on it.

Restriction, and why the steady version is the useful one

None of this makes the bike stronger. A drop-in element returns only the restriction it caused itself, so a standard ZH2 with a P08 in it is not noticeably faster than the same bike with its paper panel. What differs is the shape of the curve across an interval. Paper collects and holds, so its resistance rises from the day it goes in; the woven polyester is cleaned back to its starting condition, which turns the restriction in front of the compressor inlet into a number the owner sets rather than an invisible climb.

Care and cleaning

Compressed air, blown from the clean side outwards, is the standard service. Where the road has left more than air will lift, wash it in lukewarm water with a little mild detergent and rinse until the water runs clear. It then has to dry completely in moving air — no heat gun, no radiator, no flame — before going back in dry with nothing applied. Check the seal all the way round. The maintenance sheet is under the Downloads tab.

Fitment & Compatibility

Cut for the series airbox of the Kawasaki ZH2 built from 2020 to 2026, the only machine on this code and the single entry under the Fitment tab. The same airbox is also catalogued with the finer T12 non-woven and with the F1-85 racing cloth, each a different setting of the same trade.