Originally Posted by
Bill Kapaun
You might consider 9 speed.
Price isn't that much more, but you have a much wider assortment of cassettes available to get the gears that are most useful.
+1. 8-speed is kind of a "dead zone" between 7-speed and 9-speed these days. Shimano only makes one nicely-spaced cassette (13-26) that isn't one of their 11-28, 11-30, or 11-32 MTB combos.