Kaly NYC 2.0 – A Review

The Kaly nyc 2.0 is my second board after I started esk8ing last year on a Meepo V3. To give you some context, I am a city skater living in London so all of my skating is done on mostly uneven roads, through its parks and along its river trails. The Kaly 2.0 is absolutely perfect at handling London’s skating conditions. 

Once I had mastered my first board last year and fell in love with electric skateboarding, I began commuting to work on my board. Wow, this opened up the city to me. Starting the day with a skate, an adrenaline rush and a huge smile on my face became the new norm. I don’t have a bad word to say about the Meepo V3. It was my first board and I will always love it but I came to the decision that “if I’m going to do something then I’m going to do it properly” and I pulled the trigger on buying a premium board.

The decision

What a tough decision on which board to get it was! I looked at Lacroix, Kaly, Bioboard, Trampa and few others. The companies that I contacted with queries all got back to me super fast. They are all clearly excellent boards so there were two reasons that I went with the Kaly 2.0 in the end over the others. Firstly, the whole look of the board. Of course it’s subjective but the Kaly 2.0, for me, was the best looking board out there. It’s simple yet elegant and sleek look does it for me all day long. Again, completely subjective but I thought that many of the other premium boards just looked too “busy” at the back end with all the belts and motors taking the shine off the overall look of the boards. The second reason was that I just liked the cut of Ernesto at Kaly’s jib (as we say in the UK). It turned out that he is a similar size rider to me – tall and 95kg – and how Kaly boards are developed, tested and built in NYC really resonated with me when buying a board to handle the streets of London.

You can check out the board at their website “kaly.nyc”.

The riding experience

But how nice a board looks doesn’t make it decent though, right? After my first ride home from work on it, I honestly had an adrenaline rush that lasted the whole evening. I couldn’t stop smiling. My first thoughts were that it was like riding a magic carpet. I had only ever ridden 100mm hub motor wheel previously. Suddenly, I’m floating through London on 200mm pneumatic tyres! The difference in ride feel is immense. Cracks in the road, drain covers, cyclist deterrent horrible pavement tiles I now no longer have to think about. The Kaly 2.0 glides over them without a second thought and with no reverb back up into the body. It is a wonderful feeling.

Acceleration? – Yes, baby!

My next jaw drop moment was how punchy it is in terms of acceleration. The Meepo V3 is a very fast board but I would get acceleration anxiety when pulling off after a red light with traffic around me. I felt I was holding cars up behind me for those first few critical seconds. With the Kaly 2.0, it’s on a whole new level. The board’s acceleration from stationary is insane. I often find myself internally chiding the car in front for being so sluggish! 

What about the top speed?

This leads nicely onto top speed. I can’t give you a precise number I’m afraid but I’m going to say that it’s significantly higher than 30 mph. I record most of my rides on a tracking app. The fastest I have clocked it is at 28 mph but I have never put “the pedal to the metal” and gone full throttle on the remote. I always have the risk of cars pulling out of side streets so 20 to 28 mph is my sweet spot, comfortable riding speed. But yeah, it’s a super fast board and I weigh 95 kg. 

Real Life Range

Range is very important to me. I don’t own a car or my motorbike anymore so the Kaly is my main means of transport. Ernesto told me that I would get 20 miles on it with my weight and riding speeds. I range tested it and got 20 miles on it. This made me very happy. I didn’t run it to a complete standstill but the remote was buzzing like crazy so I may have squeezed an extra mile out of it tops.

Portability and Weight

Onto portability. It’s a big board. It weighs around 18kg. I had to change my carrying style from picking up the Meepo V3 with its convenient handle to dragging the Kaly along on its back wheels. You know what? I much prefer this way of lugging my board about! For some reason, I couldn’t carry my Meepo without it ripping my jeans’ pockets to shreds from its grip tape constantly rubbing against them. Dragging the Kaly along I prefer but I wouldn’t want to drag it for too considerable distances due to its weight. 

Is it too loud? the motor sound…

Do you know what the biggest surpise about the Kaly 2.0 was? The sound it makes! Coming from a hub motor board, I was expecting it to make a lot of noise like the belt drive boards do. This concerned me because electric skateboards are not that common yet in London and my MO is to make a positive impression about them to the general public. I ride politely and try to give esk8 a good name. A noisy board, I worried, might annoy people. The Kaly 2.0 has direct drive geared motors and is not belt driven. It is not noisy at all! The noise it makes is actually absolutely perfect. Pedestrians can hear me approaching if I’m coming up behind them in a park but it is more of a hum than a screech and is not anti-social in the slightest. Another win!

Street credit

Talking about the general public – the looks and comments I get on the Kaly 2.0 are mental! I thought the Meepo V3 turned heads. Oh, how wrong I was! People are fascinated by this board. I have had lovely conversations with random strangers interested in knowing how it works. The number of kids I have inspired on my travels to ask their parents for an electric skateboard, I can’t imagine!

The Deck

So in terms of the deck itself – it has some flex but is generally pretty stiff. I personally don’t think you need too much bounce in a deck when the wheels are so big. I’m a kitesurfer and, weirdly, the deck reminds me of a kitesurfing board. It could be the rectangular shape but the deck also has really cool “wings” that come upwards slightly from the deck at the front and the back. This really helps with carving because I feel my toes and heels really connect with this “wing edge” which gives control to turning that definitely reminds me of being on the waves with my kite in the sky. 

The remote

The remote for the board does the job. It doesn’t really have any bells and whistles on it. It’s a Flipsky remote which I think the Lacroix boards use as well. It doesn’t have a digital display or accelerometer. To be honest, this doesn’t bother me. I record most of my rides on my phone so I access speed and ride data from there. Also, it’s probably a good thing that I’m not always looking down at the remote to check my speed in terms of road safety! One thing that did catch me out is that the battery on the remote runs out of juice quickly  unlike the Meepo V3 remote that seemed like it never needed charging. It is recommended that you charge the remote after every other ride. I learnt this the hard way but it was also good to test how far I could go once the remote starts buzzing, telling you that it’s low on power. I went 1.9 miles on it before I got complete remote cut off.

The charger

A few other things to mention about the board. The charger is massive!! I kind of like that though. It gives me confidence that I’m filling it with 20 miles of range whenever I charge it. It can still fit in a backpack with no worries but it is quite hefty.

Meepo V3 vs Kaly 2.0 Charger

Water resistance

It is also nice not having to worry about the rain. It’s water resistant rather than being water proof so I wouldn’t ride it into the sea (I’ve got the kitesurfing board for that!) but rain and puddles and mud are not going to affect it. The grip on the tyres is also really nice in the rain compared to my last no-grip urethane hub wheels which were so slippy on wet roads that it wasn’t worth the risk taking it out in wet conditions. 

The Price

So all the goodness that I have mentioned above does come at a price. The Kaly 2.0 cost me $2,850 with an extra $100 or so to ship it to the UK. The shipping time was just over a week. They had the board built and ready to ship the following day after making my order. The customer service was excellent throughout. I even had a FOCBOX video call with Ernesto to adjust the board’s parameters to my riding style which was an excellent touch I must say! It’s an expensive board that I thought long and hard about the price justification before I pulled the trigger. I have not regretted the purchase for a split second. It’s true; you get what you pay for and, referencing my previous comment about it feeling like riding a magic carpet, riding the Kaly 2.0 has opened up “A Whole New World” for me in my riding!

Some cons

In terms of cons – I can only think of two. The braking is very strong. Perhaps a little too strong for me. I’m going to give it a bit more time but the nice thing is that I know I can just contact Kaly and do another FOCBOX session to loosen them should I wish. The second thing is that this is definitely not a beginner board! Yes, it has 3 different settings that limit the top speed, acceleration and braking to different extents in the first 2 settings. However, the different settings are a bit silly. The board is a beast in all three modes!! My last board capped the top speed at 5 mph in its first setting and then moved up in increments which makes far more sense for beginners starting out.

All in all…

All in all, I could not be happier with the Kaly 2.0. It makes me excited thinking about riding it tomorrow. It is a premium board with a premium feel. It looks so damn nice that I don’t even put it away. Wherever you put the Kaly 2.0, it will make that place look better. It really is a stunning board to look at and to ride. If you would like to see more pictures of the Kaly 2.0 or watch it in action then check out my Insta and YouTube channel Sk8oetry.

You can check out the board at their website “kaly.nyc”.

Alternative Boards

5 thoughts on “Kaly NYC 2.0 – A Review”

  1. Hey man, I went for the stiffer deck. I checked this with Ernesto at Kaly beforehand. He is a similar weight to you and I and he rides with the stiffer deck so I would suggest that!

    Reply
  2. hi daniel question my friend on the xl 2.0 how strong, in your experience will it pull someone like my self up hill ? i weight about 235 i currently have the carbon evolve board it a total of 3000 watts , i meanly looking more power for uphill rides! with my evolve board i can only pull 9 MPH up hill?

    i appreciate your response . great web page btw

    Reply
    • Hey Luis,
      thanks for your comment.
      The Kaly X2 is a lot stronger than the Evolve Carbon.
      You can definitely expect a noticeable increase in uphill riding speed.
      Best,
      Daniel

      Reply

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