pretty sure shimano discs happened in mega 9 land.

As for the 8 speed levers and Juicy’s, maybe ask on a more gravity oriented forum? I know there are plenty people still using and maintaining 7/8 speed systems out that way for reasons of ruggedness.

Just taken a hunt and by M765 XT, Shimano had hydraulic discs in the range. Don’t know how much earlier.

Also: SRAM X4 – the rear is standard SRAM 1:1 ie, front will pull fine on a Shimano mech but rear will not be compatible …

Maybe Cable disc calipers with your old V levers might be a better/cheaper workaround unless you plan on upgrading the entire drivetrain?

Have you tried fitting the Juicy lever inboard of the shifter to use the lever tip mainly, creating space for the shifter, possibly? And

If you want to sell those on.. MIP )

I love an 8-speed thread! 😀

2nd hand 8sp alivios (m410) will be worth a look: they don’t shift as ‘crisply’ as xt of course but they last forever and fit ok with hydraulic levers- they have on occasions featured on bikes a few years ago with cheapest shimano, juicy 3 and tektro hydraulic brakes. Here is a hideous hybrid with m410’s and juicy levers playing nicely together. I’ve got a rh one on my ancient dh/trouble bike with old m800 saint levers and the angles on it are also fine. (although you might want to trim a couple of mm off the shift levers if you like them close your lockon grip collars). The mc18 (even older ones) have the window under the shifter too and can be had for next to nothing on ebay. You also might find you make a profit by selling your 8sp xt ones too as iirc being very good and reliable (apart from the lever compatibility bit!) they are quite sought after by retro-ists.

i still run 8 speed on my bike….(about to get flamed?…i think i’ll run for cover just in case).
the shifter i use is also an xt unit so probably the same as yours…

i also ran the same shifters on my other 2 bikes while i had them and never had any fitting issues with them. the brakes that heav worked alongside the shifter are…shimano deore (cant remember which model exactly), hope mini mono, hope 6ti, magura julie, hayes hfx-9.
i’ve never had any experience of fitting them to hydraulic avids as i avoid their brakes like the plague…so i blame your brakes 😛

i will at some point this year make the transition to 10 speed but i’ll still run the 8 speed set up on a spare bike as i love it so much

i run my set up as follows…grip – brake lever – shifter
i’ve tried it with the levers switched over and it doesnt really work that well.

May I suggest a SRAM Attack shifter- works with Shimano rear mechs, fits with levers no problem

no worries Adrec..i’ll take a picture of mine tonight and upload it so can see how i’ve set it up. its currently on with the hayes hfx

Adrec – i’ve found an image of the shifter and lever but you will have to zoom in for a closer look to see how it’s set up and what it looks like underneath the bar…this is the current set up i have

this shows the same parts but on the previous frame (transferred most of the parts to the full susser) again you’ll need to zoom in but it gives you an idea of what it looks like from the top.

hope this helps…..like i said i’ll try and get a close up of it uploaded tonight

I may have just made this up, but I’m sure SRAM/AVID where deliberately making levers that didn’t fit with Shimano shifters to push people over to SRAM gears. This would have been about the same time as your XT 8spd were produced.
But then Shimano made those stupid XTR brakes/shifter all-in-one levers and everyone jumped on SRAM for a few years.