Get the red key at any cost. I am going through this at the moment, I nearly totaled my 749s on the track (OVER 4 MONTHS AGO). I bought this bike from my dealer which he had on consignment it had less than 600miles, no red key at the sale.
The previous owner is evidently one of these semi-tallented movie stars living in the Santa Barbara/Monticito area and doesn't give a shit; my dealer is actually suing him for the key at the moment! When I bought the bike I mentioned this is a deal breaker and he always said he would stand up and do the right thing if I ever needed the red key. Well, I smashed the living hell out of my speedo/tach, guess what, new speedo/tach, no life for the poor bike.
It sucks having a totally fresh rebuilt bike sitting at the dealer that doesn't run cause they are scrambling to get the red key issue sorted. As I understand it, the "correct" way to fix the issue is to get a new ecu, and key set. These two items are approximately $2,500. Then you can marry the speedo/tach. There is one or two computer geeks out there that can over ride this issue, my parts are up there at one of these guru's place, all paid for and he is just not shipping the parts back down. So, here I sit getting more and more pissed as the summer rolls on...............
Get the red key or face possible great unhappiness in the long run.......
Mark