[Flip]

As said many times on here, Ducati's tend to be massively over geared (as are most bikes) to allow them to pass the Euro drive by noise emission tests, which I presume has got tighter over the years but as the bike's performance has increased is perhaps not so noticeable.

I've run the lower gearing for years now but I am pretty sure I remember actually getting better fuel economy from the bike after I changed it, even with enthusiastic use of the added torque effect of lower gearing. All down to the fact that fifth and sixth gears become more usable when cruising.