OK. I know that the question has been asked a thousand times and i have scoured the forums and read what i believe to be is most everything concerning this issue. HOwever, i still have questions. I presently have two 8 speed mountain bikes. Eight speed parts are hard to find on the big online bike retailers sites. (performance, pricepoint, jenson, nashbar etc.)

They are basically hard to find anywhere. (if anyone has links please provide) So Trek and many of the bigger name bike companies continue to crank out 8 speed bikes in their "recreational" level MTB's. The 2005 Trek recreational line is completely full of 8 speed bikes. You have to spend over $800 to get a nine speed as near as i can tell.

So most people will tell you that it is not worth upgrading an 8 speed due to the cost. They suggest just buying new. Well, in the Trek line (my LBS carries so most familiar) if you buy a $340 bike like mine, you have $460 to work with in upgrades in the near future before you hit the price of a 9 speed equipped bike selling new. So maybe it does make sense? Everyone says you can run 9 speed deraillers and cranks with 8 speed cassette and shifters. So i have replace my chain and cassette on both bikes recently with 8 speed. They should run awhile.

The next thing to go will likely be the crankset. So i am keeping an eye out for 8 speed cranks but can't really find many so figure i will go with 9 speed and possibly just take everything to 9 speed eventually. Does this make sense? I plan to run these bikes for awhile since it makes no sense to upgrade to another 8 speed bike and those are the bikes that are in my price range.

Sure i can shell out $800 for a new bike but i can buy a lot of parts for that kind of money. Any insights or advice would be helpful to myself and probably anyone else caught in this 8 speed backwater.

loosescrews.com has 8 speed stuff...

sd

I only see two cranksets there??? Also, is there an ancient Chinese Secret about where the LBS's get their 8 speed stuff. Any LBS workers want to spill the beans?? Obviously they have sources, or they couldn't service what they sell.

Hmmmmmm. Maybe this is all a conspiracy.

There is hardly any 8spd stuff available anymore. Plus, if you spend the extra $460 for a 9spd bike (there are a lot of 9spd bikes available for $500ish), you are also getting a better frame, wheelset, etc.

cassette, shifter, chain, and crank...i dont think it would cost that much to get all of that if you searched for bargains.

loosescrews has the 8spd crankset, cassette, shifter, chain, etc. no idea why you can't find them. typing in "8 speed" does the trick for me.

sd

Here is what i find. I clicked on Crank/Chainring and then cranksets and that is what i got. Please link me to some 8 speed cranksets on there if you can.

Can you give me some examples? I live in a LBS starved part of the world. Thanks.

ooooh u're looking for 8 speed cranks specifically..i though u just wanted 8-spd stuff in general. here's some cranks:
https://www.mtbstore.com/mountain-bik...rts/cranks.php

Isn't the real differential here the fact that the 9 speed is thinner, ie, cogs thinner, more tightly spaced hence requiring a thinner chain?

I was always under the impression that 6/7/8 speed stuff was mix-n-match for the most part. The only speed specific would be shifters.

I put a nine speed crank on my 7 speed MTB, haven't had any issues to speak of.

Why doncha just use a '9speed' crank??

Shifters (the right one, actually), rear cassette and chain go together. IOW, you need a 9-speed shifter to shift a 9-speed cassette, whereas you need an 8-speed shifter to shift an 8-speed cassette. And since cogs are closer to each other on a 9-speed drivetrain, you need a 9-speed chain on a 9-speed cassette. OTOH, you could use a 9-speed chain with an 8-speed cassette, even though it usually doesn't make sense ($).

But derailleurs, front shifter and crankset are totally blind to the number of gears you have in the back.

Chain is the same for 7 and 8 speed, but thinner for a 9 speed, so I'm not sure a 9-speed chain would work all that well with an 8 speed cassette. I've certainly used a 8 speed campag derailleur with a 9 speed groupset when I couldn't get to my LBS for new jockey wheels, and it worked OK.

Not a problem.