rjsdavis":89iu55zr said:hamster":89iu55zr said:9 speed on have deeper splines (but otherwise the same design as 8 speed) as they switched the freehub body to alloy. Cheaper 9 speed cassettes (like Veloce) are fully separable and the sprockets are the same thickness as 8. Essentially if you re-assemble with the 8 speed spacers you should be OK.
Is this correct Hamster? I had thought an 8 speed Exa-Drive freehub/cassette, was completely different from all 9 spd + freehubs that followed (Ultradrive and so on) - and that the cassette splines were incompatible as a result?
The splines are incompatible in the sense that:
a) 9 speed sprockets don't fit onto an 8 speed hub
b) 8 speed sprockets must not be fitted onto a 9 speed hub as they are too shallow and will mangle the body in use.