You should really, if it’s breathing out easier you should allow it to breathe in easier, that said I don’t know how free flowing the standard filter is, the good news is that if you leave your lamdas in place and functioning there’s no need to remap.
I think you should avoid anything from K&N. Might as well have no filter at all. If you are going to buy a higher flow air filter, at least install one that actually filters such as a Sprint which also does not require any oil. Check this out first then decide: Air Filter Test
Stock air filter or quality after-market? That's a good question which I actually had the opportunity to discuss with David Lillard, President of Rexxer USA. When you order a re-map flash from them, you have to complete a form with details about what equipment you have installed in addition to other requests. One of those questions is: are you using a stock or high performance filter? His opinion was that the stock Ducati filter is very good. A quality after-market filter will only add 1~2 hp max at the top end but will significantly increase the engine noise. Moreover, a good quality high-performance air filter is not cheap.
That’s good to know, as is often the case nowadays so much effort has gone into development by the motorcycle manufacturer (or their suppliers) that aftermarket parts don’t give much benefit , I’ll be staying with stock as no doubt the filtration is far better using the Ducati recommended part.
No, standard systems have an amount of redundancy built into them, so that even at the end of its service life the OEM filter will still pass all the air the engine needs. They are also made to strict standards of filtration. Only time you need a different filter is if the engine has been significantly tuned.
