Hi,

I have a somewhat similar situation. I have a 7 speed Hyperglide freehub with 130 mm dropouts using 8 speed Sora brifters on two of my bikes. I bought the 8 speed brifter version thinking I might want to convert in the future and read somewhere in the forum that the difference between 7 and 8 speed cassette sprocket spacing and there by brifter pull per click were close enough to work OK which turned out to be the case for me. So I do not want to use 8 out of the 9 speed cassette.

Reading between the lines in your thread am I correct to think I can convert to an 8 speed cassette
by performing a 7 to 8 speed body transplant on my existing hub shell? I also would like to decrease my lowest 13 tooth sprocket to 11 tooth, so will I need a special lockring plus 8 speed spacers between each of the sprockets? Third, where can I get an 8 speed body? from Harris Cyclery or any decest LBS?

I apologize for all the questions, but I am a relatively newbie 50 plus.