All good points except this one (with a caveat) - 18-24 spoke coaster hubs have been made from 36 and 48 hole hubs. These are rare and are treasure once found. Shimano is the brand.

And yes, Suntour made the baddest coaster but good luck finding service parts - the shoes. Bearings and cogs are easy as pie to service.

In my coaster days I welded the cog on, I welded the arm to the shoe race and I loose balled them. Loose balling a coaster is just buying some extra cage bearings and freeing them all up and greasing the races to hold them in place and delicately popping it all together. The hub is very smooth and rolls beautifully after that. I beat on my coaster in the old school bmx days and I never ever had a spoke or over heating issue. I did spin cogs and arms. Hence the welding of them.

We used to gravity race down parkades, coast down hills - and I always would catch and pass freewheelers. Loose ball is the shiz.

In today's climate of availability and servicability I would purchase a Shimano, loose ball it with good lithium grease and leave it unwelded on a SS non-bmx bike. Now if they only made a shell with 32 holes...I have used a Bendix and killed it within 2 days. New. I don't like building wheels with 2 days between lacing. Bendix can suck it.

Make sure when you get a coaster hub you nab a couple extra nuts.