BMC air filter review

BMC air filter UCE standard 500

Air filters are strictly a personal choice. Some prefer foam, some prefer fabric and others say there is nothing like paper element. Cost wise paper element is the cheapest. In fact, you’ll end up spending more just in the maintenance of the fabric air filter than in buying a new paper element filter. However there’s a catch. Paper element filters are notoriously unreliable.
If somebody sprays water on it, it is as good as dead. If it is sitting too long in humid conditions it will not function properly. Additionally these paper elements are quite restrictive and block free flow of air. So I switched to fabric air filter. Now I had two choices K&N and BMC. I chose BMC mostly because it was recommended by red rooster. Moreover I had read somewhere that due to the less restrictive nature of K&N it tends to let in a lot of dirt in dusty climate. While BMC claims to filter even better than paper element. Then there was the thing about carb jetting. Almost everywhere I had asked before they had recommended carb jetting to be done along with K&N filters. This was also not required for BMC. Anyways since I have only run BMC along with Red rooster exhaust I can only comment that I saw a boost in pickup and performance. I can’t say if it was partly due to RRP and partly due to BMC or wholly due to either. What I can say is that it installed with least amount of hassles. I have since checked the space inside the air filter and not seen a speck of dust. So it seems to be doing its job well.

BMC air filter Box

Pros or advantages of BMC air filter

Long life. Improved pickup. No carb jetting. Improved air filtering. More reliable

Cons or disadvantages of BMC air filter

High maintenance costs. The maintenance kit costs around Rs. 3000. This will be used for at most 7-8 times. Very pricey. 

Further improvements required in BMC air filter

The material in this filter is just surgical fabric instead of paper element. I think the manufacturer can sell this at a much cheaper price.

Usage tips for BMC air filter

BMC air filter cleaning kits are very hard to find. In case you are not able to source it, you can easily use K&N recharge kit. It will do exactly the same work.
Most vendors will tell you to clean your BMC air filters every 3000 km. This is not correct information. They do it so that you come to them again and again for cleaning and they can make more money. I have talked about this with various BMC vendors and understood that they need to be cleaned every 10,000 to 15,000 kms depending on usage and riding conditions. The best way to know however is to look closely at your air filter. If you can see the wire mesh of your air filter then it is clean. If your wire mesh is coated with dust then it needs to be cleaned.

Where to buy BMC air filter

Can be bought online. In case you live in NCR I would recommend you to buy it from Ryderz accessories Karol Bagh as you will get it Rs. 200-300 /- cheaper

Price (approx) of BMC air filter

Rs. 5290/-