Nano in 700c rims
I have a Nano motor (front hub) built into a Falcon Camargue sports bike from the late 70s. The Nano is of course a Tongxin as well, but I've had good reliability until recently when I had to have a new ESC. The bike started out with 27" rims but that limits the tyre choice so I've laced the wheels up with DTC 700c rims, fairly slim tyres, Continental 24mm profile if I remember correctly.
When I bought the Nano Simon Mills at Systems for Reliability asked me to send the front wheel to him so he could lace it up. That was when it had 27" rims so I've rebuilt it since into it's current 700c format. I haven't found any problems building my own wheels, I thing there is a lot of BS* talked about wheelbuilding, given a bit of common sense any Fred Dibnah back street mechanic can do it! Do take some time working out the spoke lengths before ordering them though,
The Nano is a small unit and fits between the Falcons fork without any need for bending, although I did need to file the slots to accept to larger diameter spindle. The original torque washers (stop the spindle from rotating the opposite way from the motor, every action has an equal and opposite reaction) gave up the ghost - made of monkey metal, so I made some from 1/8 EN26 steel and they are fine.
Being a lightweight bike with Renolds 501 frame tubing and almost everything else ally the performance is excellent, I've centralised the mass of the 36v 12ah SLA batteries in the frame triangle so it handles like a normal bike as well.
I think there are many advantages to "electrifying" a good lightweight as opposed to a mountain bike carthorse. Narrow high pressure tyres give low rolling resistance, the lack of weight gives good handling, increased mileage per charge and the ability to give more assistance via pedals.
