Backfire II review after three days - real world usage and a PSA

This is going to be a bit long and includes some short video clips. Lots of ups and downs so far, but overall it's been a thoroughly positive experience with the board and Customer Service through Jason at Backfire Boards.

Here's the rundown of the order process:

• 7/20 Ordered
• 8/04 Tracking available on FEDEX
• 8/11 Delivered to my door, first ride
• 8/13 Battery issue - will not charge
• 8/14 *edit awaiting shipment of battery from Backfire
• 8/20 Still waiting for shipment date for battery replacement

Day 1: board arrives + test

Bearing test clip (0:21): https://streamable.com/mzmov

Motor test clip (0:26): https://streamable.com/pucio

Board came around 50% charged. I charged it to Full and took it out for a ride and drained battery completely (100% to 0%). I set off in a controlled environment (local park) to make ensure board performance is consistent. Used it on slow mode for about 10 minutes before keeping it on fast mode. It absolutely was stable and it rode beautifully, no problems at all and I can attest to YouTuber's PRESS RESET and FabTRAV word that it is a beast. Few things is that the brakes bite hard, so the lean back is a must. I do notice the hub motors get very hot - this is normal with these motors especially constantly running them at max power.

Day 2: rest day

Charged the board to full overnight. Left it charging and did not ride.

Day 3: battery issue

Real world use on the streets - a total of 12.3mi with some juice to spare (~10% battery life). 4.2mi downtown one way (8.2 roundtrip) with lots of braking and acceleration. Did the final 3.9mi in controlled environment at the end of the day. Here's where problems start to appear. We're at around 10-15% battery life I imagine, first thing I notice is the brakes have a 1-2sec delay. Scary when you're going ~15mph and the strong brakes lag a couple of seconds before snagging and braking. It felt like there was disconnect with the board, then reconnect and brakes applied. Following this theory, the controller showed 2 bars again (50%). I don't know that much about electronics but this seems to me like voltage sag. I continue riding a bit and hit full throttle a few times, all is good. And then the same scenario happens again. Brakes will not engage until 1-2secs holding them down. From then on, I hit low throttle the rest of the way home.

I get home and the touch the hubs. They're still hot. I plugged the board in and the charger light remains Green. Not charging. I figure it might have overheated and let it cool off. Still no go. Maybe the charger LED died? I keep the charger plugged in for 30 minutes, and see if it's charging by feel. It'd be a little warm - no go. At this point I contact Jason and open up the battery compartment, noting the wires look good inside, nothing is disconnected. I took a few videos and send them over. Jason reported back with an engineer. Instructed me to turn on the board and power the motor WHILE battery is plugged in to charging (against the warning in User Guide).

This happened: https://streamable.com/yegh6

Light on the charger goes Red while motors are engaged. At this point Jason says the battery is the problem and they will ship me a new one tomorrow (today). He says he hasn't seen this problem before. I'm going to assume it's my dumb luck to get a bad battery, and hope it's not a batch of them. My serial number is #737 in case anyone else has experience they can share, as I understand #500 and over are production boards.

This has been my experience so far, and the customer service has been responsive.

*edit as of 8/20/2017 still waiting to hear of new batteries, and shipment date.