It appears that least on my '17 Canadian issue Z-Force 800 Trail, CF Moto has begun to fit their own version of a 2 stage oiled foam air filter. Yay! (The owners manual isn't even up to speed with it yet, the references are all about a paper cartridge air filter) It also has a good sturdy stretch metal style cylinder shaped form on the inside to prevent collapse. Should we celebrate already? Not so fast, as it happens.
Me being a suspicious sort and having previously had this go round on my King Quads I had planned a holiday ATVing in Wallace Idaho, though it being a long dry spell it was bound to be dusty going. I'll just take it easy I says to myself (never used or needed more than half throttle), and try to avoid as much dust as I can. I'll wait for dust to settle before following companions, besides I have a 2 stage oiled foam air filter, don't I?
OK, here's what I found with CF Moto's air filter, with operator care taken to minimize dust inhalation.
Pic 1. OK, she looks dusty alright.
Pic 2. A wipe of the finger shows that despite the oiled foam filter and care taken to avoid dust, some fine dust has gotten through.
Pic 3. Oh boy, dust on the butterfly. Damn.
Pic 4. Good thing I already have the Twin Air cleaning kit. Here's CF Moto's 2 stage filter element. The outer sock is quite coarse to the eye and the inner is finer. Close examination does not reveal any separations or paths of leakage, all is intact and any contaminants have to have entered through the filter medium.
Cleaning the filters with the Twin Air detergent and hot water made the water resemble straight mud. The filter obviously caught a lot of material, though as we see not everything.
So... Is CF Moto's air cleaner inferior to the Uni and the Twin Air? Is it a coarser grade of filter foam?
In the identical conditions would the latter brands have done better? Should I follow NMKawierider's example and make myself a two stage air filter?
The throttle body and butterfly are cleaned again and the filter is prepped as a Twin Air would be.
And now I'll have to treat any dust at all like it's a radioactive cloud.