What material to use for double-bagging air filters?
 

Deep into our second year of drought and dust is proving to be a bit of an issue, what sort of material can I put over the air intake to cut down on the amount of dust that ends up in the air filter?

There's two little snorkels on the Tangos' air boxes, I'm thinking of making little socks for them that I can easily pop off and shake out after a half-day of riding

I did use filterskins product and i find it works well


https://www.motosport.com/PC-Racing-Filterskins


If you are looking for a cheaper solution, some say they are using swimming pool filter savers but i never tried it.


Patrick

There's a number of makers of filter socks like Filterskins, they're all good - stops the worst of the dust and easy to do a quick change as needed.
Note you don't "shake them out" as they're oiled too - un-oiled they're useless, the dust goes straight through to the main filter. Remember the FOAM is NOT the filter - the foam holds/carries the oil that does the actual dust trapping / filtering.
I just carry one in a ziplock and swap it out. Squeezes down to almost nothing, so no big deal to carry. You can even wash it clean enough with fuel, and re-oil with engine oil.

Good point Flashdog! The concept of paper air filters is foreign to me ;) so I never considered that. :) Doesn't everyone go to oiled foam for off-road or travel especially?

In 1986 when I was setting up our R80G/S for world travel, I tried to buy a foam filter and couldn't get one, so MADE one by tearing out the brand new factory paper (yes there was a moment of guilt, er "cheapness" but only a moment) and (it's a flat pancake filter, air in from the top) got a piece of heavy wire mesh, cut to fit, and jammed the ends of the wire into the rubber outer mount part. A slab of filter foam, another layer of wire mesh not jammed in tight but just enough to be sure it wouldn't bounce out, and it's still there, exactly as when I made it. Worked perfectly, been washed many many times in gas, dish soap and water, and possibly once with foam filter wash - nah, no way, too expensive. Still works perfectly and in fine condition.


Edit:

Just for fun I did a bit of searching to see if anything was available now for airheads, and only Uni popped out, on Ebay
Uni Filter Air Filter - BMW "R" | NU-7303
BTW - one of the first things I did on my R1200GSA was put in a foam filter, and yes I have socks for it.

Just thought , In a haze of Dominican rum, that the honda xr 250 tornado has 2 air filters, the first is two layers of foam, aca vacum cleaner ( dry) and then a dry paper one . Sounds as if honda had u in mind

Thanks for the inputs :)

I've decided to use what I already had laying around, namely some old thin socks held in place with hairbands. The Tango has a big paper filter that works well (if it's dusty you can just knock it clean against anything hard, and it can be fanned out to get into the nooks and crannies) the only downside is it's not quick to get at ... I recon the socks will keep some of the muck at bay, but there's one way to find out!