FIRST PERSON/OPINION Via e-mail: Kelly bounced a check, and ignored an invoice. We took him to court, and won. He still has not paid us. Fred Renz Yoyodyne Morristown, New Jersey FIRST PERSON/OPINION Via e-mail: I did not experience such blatant fraud, just not a pleasant experience. I had met Kelly Baker when he worked at Pro Italia. He serviced, under their banner, my Ducati 750SS. I always enjoyed chatting with him. He was always personable and in a good mood. He seemed to have a passion which I shared, so at that point, I held him in pretty high regard. And, nothing bad happened to my motorcycle at Pro Italia. He was the one who turned me on to track days and, in my neophyte-state, I was pretty impressed with how he got around the track for such a big dude on an old bike. But much later, I had given him an RS125 chassis with a Honda CBR150r engine in it to make a CMRRA road racer – which I couldn’t get to run. There was something wrong with the electrical system and I had asked him to sort it out. He said he would and could. At every monthly CMRRA race I went out there to check on my motorcycle. There was alway a handful of excuses as to why it was not ready. My perception of the shop was that it was a mess (even for my standards), his craft was sloppy, and his employees (who I do feel were honest) were not happy there, that they were being given the run-around as well. I was even there one time when another customer came in and wanted his bike. I think he had a tire-iron in one hand and kept slapping it into the other. All the customer kept saying angrily was, “Kelly, I want my bike.” That’s all he kept saying every time Kelly Baker opened his mouth. So, I left: I didn’t want to be around this situation as the customer looked intent on using the tire iron, but I felt bad for leaving as if it may have been what the customer wanted: one less witness. I really thought it would get ugly. He had that motorcycle for what seemed like almost a year – eight months. He finally returned the bike after immense pressure by me. It was running… barely. It had a coil from one motorcycle, a mystery box from another motorcycle, pick-ups from another, a battery and the OEM flywheel’s bolts were so badly stripped that I couldn’t remove it. The bike barely ran up the block – by the top of the hill the bike’s power was noticeably down. I do remember paying for a bunch of American Honda parts that were not used, destroyed, or even correct for the Thai-based engine. I did pay him for his time and tore all that crap out and started at the beginning. About the time I dropped off my RS/CBR150R project at his shop, I thought he was a good guy, maybe with some issues. I enjoyed talking with him and liked him enough to let him use my Aprilia RS50 chassis for him to put his own single cylinder engine in – all I wanted in return was the chance to ride it. Nothing was ever done to it. That motorcycle sat in a warehouse for so long – maybe 18 months. I even drove from Santa Monica to Willow to pick it up at one point. When I got there, there was a “problem” – it wasn’t there. When I finally did get it, it was in much worse shape than when I dropped it off. (It had been stored under a pile of fuel tanks. There were scratches and spills where there weren’t before.) I was massively disappointed. There were lots of little red flags: I had done my homework on my motorcycle (and others out there). He would say things that I knew without a doubt were incorrect, but assured me were correct. I was a relatively inexperienced motorcycle guy at that point – I just mean as far as who to go to, who to stay away from and who is who in the motorcycle community. The more people I spoke with about what was happening to my motorcycles, my money, and excuses the clearer it became: Kelly Baker was full of sh!t. At the time, I didn’t know to stay away from someone like that. I should have payed more attention to those red flags. The RS/CBR150r was finally “fixed”, with no battery and all stock Thai-Honda parts, in an afternoon with Aaron Hammel, by connecting wires in the ignition circuit where the key would have been on the street bike. If I hadn’t given him my little projects, I would still hold him in high regard from his days at Pro Italia. Obviously, something went wrong between Pro Italia and Kelly Baker’s Performance Unlimited. I hope he gets back on track and stops all the BS. Travis B. Colburn, A.I.A. Seattle, Washington FIRST PERSON/OPINION Via e-mail: Reading the story of Kelly Baker on the Roadracing World website brings back memories. Several years ago we shipped several of our suspension kits and an Ohlins shock to Kelly in the hopes of building his suspension business. Not only did we provide support, but shipped the product on a credit basis. We received a total of five bad checks, and in fact one of the checks I was given at Willow Springs I immediately brought to the Antelope Bank several miles from the track—–insufficient funds. After badgering Kelly for six months and receiving one small cash payment we finally charged his credit card which after months of trying went through. He called and was quite unpleasant, that we had the audacity to bill his card, which we had been given, but were unable to charge on till months later. We still have four of his bad checks. I don’t like to tell these stories about folks in the industry, but it seems like Kelly has not changed his M.O. Needless to say we do not do business with Kelly any more. Chip Bogosian GP Suspension Oregon City, Oregon FIRST PERSON/OPINION Via e-mail: Finally, this guy is getting the negative national attention he deserves! Here’s my synopsis: Buddy of mine (USMC) laid down a brand new GSX-R600 up on California Highway 2. Filed an insurance claim based off of Kelly Baker’s estimates. The cash was handed over to Kelly to make the repairs. Kelly then moved the location of his shop back to his house where he had quite the collection of bikes in his backyard. Among them was the GSXR-600 still not fixed. There are many particulars of this case but long story short, eight months and a couple of hearings (the first one Kelly didn’t show up to) in small claims, (case number M-1502-CS-7499) my friend still does not have a bike. I’m sure more details can be found by digging into public records found here: ~http://www.kern.courts.ca.gov/civil-index/name-search-seltype.asp~ Just select “All” and type in Kelly Baker, then hit search and you will see that this guy has a long rap sheet. When the events occurred, I was living in California City. The “victim” was living on Edwards AFB, California. I now live in Ramstein, Germany (Air Force). Thank you guys both for a great magazine and for bringing this guy out into the public eye. Cheers! Cy Eckhardt Ramstein Air Force Base Ramstein, Germany FIRST PERSON/OPINION Via e-mail: I am sad for the Ames’ and their experience. Unfortunately, the experience matches mine perfectly. Under my watchful eye, Kelly did some great motorcycle work for me. Then, I had some engine work that needed doing on an Aprilia RS250. I was planning to sell the bike. Kelly and I made a deal; he was to fix the bike and sell it, and give me $2500 of the proceeds. He claimed to have sold the bike, but I never got any of the money. I got promise after promise, but no money. So, a year later, I had a bike that needed a set of forks rebuilt. I decided Kelly could work off part of his debt by rebuilding the forks. I left the forks with him, and never got them back. It cost me $650 +/- to replace the missing forks. What I did get was a long line of promises, excuses, claims of having shipped the forks to the wrong address, promises that the forks would be in the UPS that afternoon and he would call with a tracking number, followed by no tracking number. As I have said on the WSMC bulletin board, I don’t know what’s wrong with the guy. Under careful supervision, like never letting your bike or parts out of your sight, he is a good motorcycle mechanic. But I’ve just given him too much money and not gotten anything back to trust him as far as I can throw my Road Star Warrior. And apparently, my experience is not unique. It’s sad that these things happen, but perhaps others can heed these warnings and not have similar sad fortune. Keith Giglio Steamboat Springs, Colorado FIRST PERSON/OPINION Via e-mail: I’m just letting everyone out there know the way that Kelly Baker does business. I am a WSMC liscensed racer and a U.S. Marine and have never seen someone do business like Kelly does business in my life. Supposedly Kelly was really trustworthy and a good person back in the day, but I know a different Kelly Baker. Here is what happened (this isn’t the only bad experience, but it’s the worst). My friend Eric Hughes, who is a U.S. Marine also, crashed his 2007 GSX-R600 in October of last year and took the bike to Kelly to get it repaired. The bike is still in his shop and we are still in a small claims battle with kelly. My friend (Eric) went thorough his insurance company with the bike and told Kelly to do all of the repairs back in October. We got excuse after excuse with Kelly, saying that he kept ordering the wrong parts and most of the parts were unavailable through Suzuki, or his “hook-up” who he always talks about. Kelly kept telling Eric and myself that the parts were on order and we would see them soon. This same process kept happening for months on end. I told my friend to take him to small claims about two months into it, but he is a super nice guy that doesn’t want to start anything with anyone. Kelly knew how Eric is also and believed that he could take advantage of him and take his money (which he did). Kelly picked up a new bike about two weeks after the insurance cut him the check for the GSX-R….hmmm. So Eric did file small claims about three months ago with Kelly Baker and we’ve been to Court three times already trying to get this situated. First time the judge was like “you’ve had this bike for seven months and haven’t fixed it?”, so to be kind to Kelly and not make him pay Eric $5500 dollars, he gave Kelly Baker two weeks to get the bike finished, which Kelly swore was already fixed. Well two weeks went by and Kelly never showed to Court, so Eric won the case…..BUT WAIT! Kelly knows how the system works (because he has over 15 small claims court, claims filed against him) and purposly showed up the next day and filed an apeal, which delayed the court date another month and a half. So we showed up a month later and the court screwed up the date and now we are scheduled to go again in August. Long story short, we are almost coming up on a year and Kelly hasn’t got the bike back to my friend. Kelly is a horrible businessman and should really be highlighted as someone that should be avoided at all costs. Hopefully many people read this e-mail and say “man I’ll never take my bike to that guy,” and take their bikes to someone reliable. I’m just writing this so that people won’t make the same mistake that myself and friends have made. Randy Smith WSMC #661 Rosamond, California FIRST PERSON/OPINION Via e-mail: I would like to first by starting off that Kelly Baker is on a serious downslide to the bottom if not already there. I personally had a few horrible encounters with Kelly Baker of Rosamond, California. This was around the spring of 2006, I was new to the area, I was a full-time car salesman and a reservist in the U.S. Marines, stationed on Edwards AFB. I was referred to Kelly Baker by a friend who raced out of Willow Springs, I brought my garaged Red/White 2001 Yamaha R6 to him at the track to do small things here and there like oil changes and tires. Soon he said he could be my full-time mechanic and set my bike up for races, I agreed and he would advise me of the parts I needed and would install them. I thought, ‘Cool, never had a mechanic before!’ So I went full steam ahead, first it was $500 here and another $750 there and all I had was a new chain, and sprocket, supersport tires, new jet kit, and tuned carbs. I brought the bike back to Kelly Baker and he said he would fix it, as my throttle would stick and I would have to grab a handful of clutch and shut the bike off and coast to the corner of the road. Once I got it there (to his shop) not at the track but at his house, remember, I am paying him $100 to service my bike–my mistake–CASH! He takes it in with a bunch of other bikes stripped to the frames everywhere. Kelly took my keys and my bike to move it in the garage and out falls my PDA/cell phone with all my contact of over 1500 customers in it and all my personal information and files, screen say hi to the floor. Kelly states no problem I have a friend that can fix this, don’t worry about it, so I didn’t. One month goes by and I need an update he says he is waiting on parts, OK at three months I am getting kind of upset, the wrong jets, I should upgrade to more expensive ones and he would need another $300 cash and he could have it by the next week, ‘OK, let’s make this happen, Kelly.” Days later in a conversation with some other local riders who were praising Kelly told me of how they went past and he would give them riding tips and even gave them some parts off of HIS project Red/White ’01 Yamaha R6, some red anodized fairing screws to be exact, to match his white and red Honda CBR. It sounded too familiar. The next morning I asked to see my bike and demanded an update, no fairings were attached and when told him that I wanted my bike put back together and I would sit and wait right there he told me that my screws were stripped so he threw them away. Besides the point, I knew at that moment I wanted my bike to be out of there as soon as possible. He told me he would put it back together but did not like me standing over his shoulder as he put it back together and to come back in an hour, no problem. I came back two hours later, bike is still apart. Then I got upset and demanded to assemble the bike or I am calling the police. He storms off inside his house and comes out on the phone and hands it to me, “someone wants to talk to you.” It’s my boss from the Marines, 6’5″ Master Sgt. Doug Nikkel, a self-proclaimed “good ol boy” as he calls himself. Tells me that I need to leave that place of business right then or I would be in some serious trouble. How he knew my bosses number don’t know but I wasn’t leaving without my bike, I’ll take my chances, so I just hung up the phone after that, I would take my chances. Kelly says “how ’bout that, I got endless connections as for you to know, I was a Captain in the Marine Corps.” I thought to myself who cares 45 minutes later my bike was barely running and i limped it home from Kelly’s house/shop three miles away. The next month for drill weekend I was cornered by Msgt Nikkel and my Sgt. Major his boss and was pretty much verbally beat down on everything of how to treat former senior marines and my conduct as a Marine in the public view. I was not allowed to bring any bank statements in or any proof on my behalf and I still get crapped on at work since then. I trailered my bike to a Yamaha Dealer and found out a lot of things. This is what I got for the more than $1500 given to Kelly Baker–used tires that lasted maybe 45 miles, flames coming out the back of my full titanium Acropovec exhaust(because it is a cheap exhaust not built for Yamahas per Kelly Baker), sticking throttle cable that sticks at WOT, maybe from new installed jet kit, MAYBE NOT, I was missing my K&N air filter, a broken PDA/cellphone that I still don’t have back, a bad name at my job in the Marines as a disrespectful leadership challenge because of conduct with local business owner Kelly Baker. To all people who might want to use Kelly Baker, STOP! I could care less about the money, I know I can never get it back, but my reputation as an individual has been tarnished by a person who was NEVER a Marine. The bike has been long sold and I vowed I would never buy another until I worked on it myself. I am constantly reminded as I pass his house everyday to work. My word to Kelly Baker: Life is a circle, things always come back around. Quinton Taylor Rosamond, California