I stay off this topic because it is super painful to have such a beast of a board that is sad to own.
Here’s the basic story:
I got the Bajaboard from Joseph who bought it 4 months before me from someone in NYC. The cost was about 2700 for 2016 board that was sitting somewhere for about a year. I told Joseph that he should keep me posted because I like to be the first in line. I had been talking to Bajaboard since 2015 about a special version but never pulled the plug on buying one directly from them due to half year wait time. I always thought “this board is right for me”. The issue was, Joseph is only 160lbs.
The 8s Battery in the Baja was done for for, so I told Joseph about Kevin Dark, Damon, and Ernesto in case these guys wanted to make him a battery. He contacted Kevin and paid for a battery. I had calculated that he could easily fit 10s8p in of 20700b and that was the plan. Unfortunately, Kevin took his sweet time and after nearly 2 months of nothing happening, Joseph told me he requested money back.
Even before all of this he asked me if I would make battery for him but I told him I don’t make batteries every day hence I don’t want the responsibilities. I’ve built batteries since 2017, but doing it for someone when you know it might bite you in the ass later.
I told Joseph to go to NYC and meet up with us and talk to Ernesto to have a look at it. This was mostly me trying to convince Joseph get a @Kaly board with extended battery so he can keep riding with me.
What I didn’t know at the time was that he was stationed in Virginia for a very short period of time and moved back to Seattle in July. So, we made plans and met up in Bronx at the shop to have Kaly take a look at the board. This also allowed for the opportunity to try one of the Kaly’s, and it didn’t take a while for him to decide on a Carver 2 in 1 with the extra battery that Ernesto made for him.
While still having his Bajaboard and waiting for his Kaly board I was almost certain he wouldn’t let it go as he was posting videos of him riding on trails and beaches, but he kept saying I can’t get more than 10 miles out of it.
He brought it back to NYC and we went for another ride and I tried it. On full power in Central park, the original ESC, original remote the board was all pure madness. I didn’t have a problem handling the power of it but it cut out after about 300 yards while climbing a minor hill.
One month after this, Joseph, now with his board, called me and asked if I still wanted the Baja and I said yes. He said he would let it go for same price and include some extra tires for burnout. I told him I’d give him 200 more for him to drive up and meet in NYC for a ride. We met, I got the board, and we went for a ride.
Two days after I rode the Baja for first time since I bought from him I fell on the remote and broke it. I called Baja and got new remote, new battery and new spare LCD screen. I then sat down and realized that there is something big that has to change…
I ordered 100 cells of 20700B from my source and waited for them to come. I bought 2 huge 10s BMS at 150AMPS each, both way too big. I made one solid 10s10p pack of 20700b cells, pure 42AMH of blasting energy. Same thing happened. Turns out the ECU was fried… I called Baja and ended up with two options:
- wait for another ECU and trying to squeeze this giant pack into the frame
or
- take it all out and put my own Stewii’s in and and redo it
Since I’m not the most handy man, I decided to dump this onto Ernesto. But, before I ordered extra cells, I made a 12s10p out of it. Unfortunately though, there was no room. There was also major flex of the chassis because I removed 2 of the brackets that fit the smaller original battery. This was a time bomb so I just sent it to Ernesto and told him to take his time. He told me that he had 4 FVESC 6.6, but they were too big for his application. The good thing was the waterproof housing so they could mounted outside. Ernesto agreed that the chassis is too thin and too flexi and hit up his contact to make the chassis for me. They put it all together, and I got the board back.
The same night I got it back, I streeted my face on concrete because the plastic wheel spun out of the axle. I called Baja again and ordered new wheels, but it took them about 3 months to make it so they sent me 4 plastic wheels. I put them on and after 3 rides all 4 wheels were gone, so I got more. I tried to adjust the arms and toes and camber so it wouldn’t damage the wheels, but it didn’t help.
After I got the alloy wheels I also got new shocks, new arms, new axles, new bearings. The cost was INSANE. The issue is it just has too many moving parts, and I’m clearly too heavy for it. I took it off road and broke the frame. I fixed that but I won’t take it off roading again unless I lose 50lbs.
Please, only buy this board if you’re willing to put up with it and the insane cost. If you had free parts for life it’s fun, but it will slowly fall apart. I could’ve bought 2 Kaly’s for what I spent on this.
More parts are always needed. Imagine this: you’re riding on the beach into the sunset on your baja… for about 20 yards before it breaks.
Thanks for reading.
Archee - Esk8riders
and there is no way I don’t take extra measures to make this baby monster as safe as it can be. It is an 1800 Watts/hr 
after a few hours.
for structural stability.
Only shrink wrap burned, isolator still intact.
