Originally Posted by
tatfiend
To me the major disadvantage of the coaster brake is it eliminates easy crankset repositioning for taking off from a stop.
Per some members of the Geared Hub Bikes yahoo group (see link below) the iM9 does not seem to be as reliable as the Nexus8 and Alfine. There have been some reports of early death on it. Too bad as the even steps between gears are nice. It is also relatively heavy.
If I were doing a conversion right now, and not using the Rohloff hub, my choice would be between the Alfine 11 and the new NuVinci N360. Per an email from AEBike the Alfine 11 is supposed to be out this month, November. This is per their distributor.
That is good intel. I may just wait for it to come out. I don't really want to wait until next spring, if they were to delay it that long. I am ready to "pull the trigger" but can probably wait a month while I work the other aspects of the build.