I realized that getting my Monster’s key converted into a Keyport blade cost me a whole lot more than I had expected.

Let’s be clear however, that this is through no fault of Keyport. Instead, it was the simple fact that I was the first customer to ever hand them this particular type of key (high security, transponder chip) – which turned out to be quite a nightmare for everyone. But all has been sorted out and I now have in my possession a properly working Keyport blade that works with my Monster’s immobilizer system.

I figured I’d make my “sacrifice” worthwhile by sharing whatever knowledge I’ve gleaned from the experience and help Ducati owners interested in getting ported blades for their [recent] bikes.

Of course this post wouldn’t be worth its salt if we didn’t have a blow by blow of my experience with this key. So let’s get right to it.

The Story

Since I’m not necessarily new to the Keyport system, I had assumed I’d just end up ordering their chipped auto blade like I did with my Lancer. You basically take a picture of your car’s key, upload it to their [secure] server, they identify the key, and send you the correct blade and transponder to be cut and programmed.

Easy peasy right? So I did the exact same thing, but I did this before I had bought my motorcycle – cuz you know, I want to be able to use the ported blade with it as soon as it arrives.

This required me to purchase an official OEM blank from the dealer – which cost roughly $110 (in Philippine pesos) I’m not sure if this is the same key type used for all newer Ducatis, or if there are still keys types specific to each model.

In any case, no worries, I figured you can never have too many spares keys. So I ponied up the cash, got the key, took a picture of the key in their form just like before – and sent it to them.

After a few days I get an email informing me that they actually don’t have that particular blank/blade stocked… at all (as it was very new) – and that I would have to send in the key to them for them to do a manual conversion. ¹ Basically they’d take the key apart, and put the required “skull” on it to make it compatible with the Keyport. Sending it to them via FedEx ² which was pretty much the only choice I had if I wanted it to get there in time before my friend was supposed to come home with the blank I ordered cost me about another $30. So we’re now up to about $140. Having to send it interntionally sucked because I found out soon after that I could’ve saved on both key and shipping costs if I had just ordered this Chiave con Transponder (translated: wrench with transponder) online at $70 and have it shipped directly to them. So, charge to experience, I guess. Let’s move on.

Ordering a chipped auto key, regardless if your order has a matching blank on stock – or requires a manual conversion, costs about $25 – which now puts our running total to $165.

The thing is, they found out that they couldn’t convert the key I had sent them – as the transponder was in the way of where they were supposed to install the skull. So the whole exercise was kinda pointless… or so I thought. More on this later.

Thankfully, the Keyport peeps weren’t quitters. They were committed to delivering on their promise of getting me a proper ported blank even if destroying the original key proved somewhat useless – so they expedited the creation of a blank specific for my key; the ZD30 Here’s the resulting blade being tested on my bike’s ignition unit (after having it cut on my end – which cost another $36).

So basically this is the tally of costs I incurred just to get a Keyport compatible Ducati key.

1. $110 – OEM key.
2. $30 – International shipping.
3. $25 – Chipped auto blade blank/conversion.
4. $36 – Having key cut through local locksmith.

For a grand total of roughly $200!!!

Gotchas

The good news is that obviously they now have the ZD30 included in their catalog (thanks to my key). So any person planning to get a similar blank in the future wouldn’t have to go through taking pictures and stuff – just indicate that you want the ZD30.

The bad news is that as of this posting, they still haven’t figured what transponder works with the immobilizer systems Ducati uses. So you’ll still need to send them a proper OEM key for them to extract the transponder chip from it (and include it along with your ZD30). Yes, that means you’re basically going to sacrifice a key – all for the sake of its chip. But hey, at least it meant my experience wasn’t necessarily a pointless exercise as I initially thought 🙂

Silver Lining

They did confirm that should you want to order a ZD30 in the future – you should ask them first about the status of its chip. They’re hopeful that in time, they would finally be able to stock and provide a compatible chip. When that time comes, we won’t have to buy or send any of our keys to them; just pay the $25 (and shipping) and you’ll be all set 🙂

But for now, at the very least, you’re looking at paying around $100 ³ $70 for the OEM key, then another $25 for the ZD30 and extraction of your OEM “conversion” plus variable costs covering shipping and having your locksmith cut the blank. But if you give them an already cut key, I believe they’ll include cutting the ZD30 to match your original key free of charge for a proper “conversion” – which is considerably cheaper than what I ended up spending.

So there you have it. I hope the next Ducati rider interested in getting his own ported blade finds this information useful.

Also, a special shout-out to Michelle; who I ended up communicating with most of the time. I am truly grateful for her patience with me when my own was running low. She really stepped up and did everything in her power to get that blade/chip to me in time 🙂