Just want to sanity check – am i right in thinking an Alfine 8spd hub circa 2009 would be the same spacing as a standard Shimano 9 speed rear hub?

And assuming I am right – any reason not to buy one? Any horror stories?

Yes, same spacing.

Can’t comment from experience on horrors or not but the 8 speed seems to generally have a good reputation.

Yes, spacing the same. I like mine, no problems with it, or at least the only problems (like the one I’ll fix tonight) are due to my lack of ept!

Mine developed a habit of skipping a whole crank revolution when changing from 4th into 5th (but not 6th into 5th)
Fixed under warranty by Madison, but sold the biek soon after so can’t say how well it worked in the future. Apart from that, it was faultless for the year or so I owned it.

That said, my Roholoff is better 🙂

No problems with mine. 2011 vintage

Mine is about 4 years old and sees no maintenance at all, it runs as nice as the day I got it.

Mines great!

Would definitely get another in about ten years when this ones had it!

yep…. 2008 version here. Not had a stroke of maintenance, and i only use it in the winter mud.
Brilliant.