748 Carbon Airbox

Rjkc, the 50mm system is not the reason why your bike has a weak midrange. The oem set up has a mid range power and torque hole around 5k rpm where the mixture is quite lean, the extra airflow on your system has probably made that even leaner and spread it over a wider rev range, it just needs more fuel through that part of the range to compensate for the easier breathing. It is quite normal to lose power around 5k if your chip is matched only with the pipes and you have an aftermarket airbox and filter set up. Many of the aftermarket chips do nothing except slightly improve the systems set up to an approximate level for a stock bike. The chip takes no account of the variation/increase in airflow through aftermarket airboxes and the situation is made even worse if you have an in air box filter like JHP or K&N type devices. 748s can run as big as 54mm pipes with pretty good results if they are mapped correctly on the eprom to take advantage of the increased airflow. It is possible to get 10% more power and 15% more torque from stock for set ups like yours if they are mapped correctly, the most noticeable improvements are possible with the midrange pick up. You need to get the bike setup properly by someone who knows how to do it. The best folks I know (and at the best price) are Rich Llewellyn (Louigi Moto) for the set up and Chris Steedman (CJS) to remap your eprom, others on here may be able to suggest equally talented alternatives. A remap is a full day's work will cost around £500 but you will see a dramatic improvement in the bike. Finally Power commanders are ok, will probably cost as much to buy and set up but are not quite as precise as they need to be to get the most out of your bike.

 

Give Rich Llewellyn a call to discuss the options. For the ecu you can buy replacement stickers, CJS use a plain aluminium sticker to seal the ecu access hole so the intact sticker may be confusing. Not sure how a bike of your age can go through a regular service and service set up without accessing the ECU however. If the bike has been set up and remapped before and is correctly set up now then your midrange issue needs looking at as a service check. For the remap question the key is, was it done for the current set up and who did it? - it is quite specialized work and there are not many folks in the UK that do this with the precision and care necessary for the 748.
The route you are starting out on is exactly what I have done with mine since 2006. Each upgrade like a filter change or the air tubes had its own effect and the only thing that really tied them together was the full remap. PC3 was ok and easier to adjust as the bike evolved but the two different exhaust chips I tried were little better than useless.
Most importantly the engine needs to be correctly set up a Ducati specialist before the remap is done
My 02 748S is set up now with DP carbon airbox, DP carbon air tubes, JHP trumpet filters, stock 45mm headers and collector, 54mm JHP Ti cans off a 998. CJS increased power at the rear wheel from 82 to 94, torque peaked at 50lb ft up from around 41. These are RWhp figures similar to stock 748Rs on a 748 with over 37k miles on it. The engine is only supposed to stick out 97bhp at the crank and will lose around 15% through the gearbox and chain to the wheel.