The NANO motor™ was invented by Tony Castles, a trained electronic engineer, following a spinal cord injury he suffered when falling off his conventional bike in 1995.

He found that he simply could not be as independent with his new disability as he wanted and he refused to let it hold him back.

It was a natural next step for Tony to start looking for ways that his beloved bike could still get him around the place, but with a little help if needed. He discovered the Currie electro drive during a holiday in the States and was so impressed by the simplicity and performance, that he found a way to get them in the UK. With his engineering brain, Tony has tried and tested many different motors and batteries until the NANO conversion kit™ was finally launched in 2000.

The NANO kit was an instant success with orders coming from all over the world. A to B Magazine (the leading electric bike magazine in the UK) ran a number of reviews describing the kit as ‘miraculous’, ‘a delightful little beast’ and ‘it does everything it claimed to do plus more’. However, such was the demand that Tony was overwhelmed and unable to keep up with demand.

Coincidentally, Tony had also been working as a freelance IT consultant for a small local firm. He had talked about his product so much that finally the Directors of that company, Clare & Mike Brown, finally tried the Nano, got hooked and realised that they were well placed to help Tony bring the product to market. Both had had long-term careers at the Walt Disney Company before setting up their children’s clothing business six years ago.

They introduced Tony to their friend Martin Jackson, an engineer, who had had a history in developing and financing eco products, and the new team was born in April 2009.

Ever since we announced the re-launch of the electric wheel company that same month, the demand for NANO motors™ has blown us away.

The official relaunch at the Tour de Presteigne, the electric bike rally in Wales on the 9th May 2009. Orders have been flooding in again from all over the world which bucks the trend in these tricky economic times.

Mind you, where else can you find such a fantastic product that is green, economical to run, healthy and such fantastic fun all at the same time?

We are a small team of people working to make sure we produce the best electric bike conversions. We are all completely smitten by the electric bike bug. We don't give ourselves titles, and we don't quite know how we share the work around - but everything seems to get done.

Tony Castles

Tony is an engineer and created the original nano and nano-brompton for himself after a spinal injury made it difficult for him to keep cycling. What Tony doesn't know about electric bikes isn't worth knowing. Tony works from his own dingy basement and is responsibile for all of our R&D and product testing. Rides: Nano Brompton No. 1 - the prototype!

Martin Jackson

Another engineer, Martin is responsible for our operations and production as well as incrementally improving our conversions designs. He is also a trained accountant - so handles the money side of the business. He has been involved in bringing a number of innovative new eco products to market. Also rides a Nano Brompton - an e-bike convert.

Sarah Bell

Sarah is our very efficient office administrator, and is responsible for making sure the our customer service is second to none.

Our philosophy is to design kits to fit ordinary bikes, making your favourite bicycle into your favourite e-bike.

After 11 years in the industry, and having tried pretty much every electric bike on the market, we strongly believe that what makes a great electric bike is the same as what makes a great bike.

Our conversion has a light touch and we ensure that the characteristics of the underlying bike are not compromised by the addition of electric power.

Our nano™ motor weighs just 2kg and has an excellent freewheel, so a converted bike can still be ridden as a normal bike - but go out with our state of the art Lithium battery - and you have the option of power assist whenever you want or need it.

We tailor each kit to the bike - in discussion with our customers. so that the location of the control box and the exact length of the wiring runs are set to be as unobtrusive as possible, and in the case of the Brompton does not interfere with the fold and latch at all.

Finally we can site the battery on a pannier bag, a case located under the saddle or mounted on the handlebars, or in the case of the Brompton hidden within the Brompton front luggage, together with our modified mounting block which powers the bike up without need for any other connection.