It’s an HT Pro, works perfectly well but the 44 is practically never used. Has 32/22 but I gather switching to a 36 is a popular choice. Should spacers be added to straighten the chainline? Can I keep the existing cranks and 22? Are there any bash guards that are cheap and don’t weigh a ton (will normally be bashing logs, not rocks)? Any reasons I shouldn’t do this?

Steel Deore 36t chainring (assuming that’ll fit your chainset) and a bash from BBG. I’ve had several Sfrom BBG over the years and they arrive promptly from the US – $18 delivered, about £11 or so. And they’re light, too.

That bashguard looks good! How do I find out if the Deore 36 will fit- is it just BCD and number of bolts?

Your Boardman has a Truvativ Stylo GXP chainset – which, looking at CRC spares for Truvativ, is 4-bolt 104BCD.

(But I’d check; count no. of bolts and distance across the centre.)

Parts ordered! Truvativ had thoughtfully etched the BCD onto the chainring so no measurement required. I’ve gone with a slightly more expensive and much thicker polycarbonate bash ring, on the grounds that it’ll be less likely to dig into partially-rotten logstacles.

Do you need a bashring, i.e. did you have a problem with hitting your 44t ring on stuff? Because a 36 will be significantly smaller, so you might not need one.

Yes, we have quite a lot of lone logs which I’ve been taking chunks out of as the Boardman has a low BB and I can’t bunnyhop (yet!)

I fitted a deore middle ring to a truvative. The bolt tabs of the deore had a slightly different shape to the spider of the crank. The bolts fit fine but I had to file the tabs away to fit.

I shall consider myself forewarned! Files at the ready…

Well this has proved more challenging than I expected. I’m not sure what I was thinking but I assumed that I’d be able to lift the 32t ring over the spider – dimensional fail! I have now acquired an 8mm hex bit and the cranks are off. So the 32t is off, the 36t can go on but I’d reckoned without my flat pedals being too big to get the bash ring over… Pedal isn’t coming off with an allen key so tomorrow I shall get a proper pedal spanner and continue…

Job done and tested! Am liking the bigger ratio gap between the small and middle rings and the 36t is plenty high enough for everything. Had one log hopping incident where the greater ground clearance made the critical difference. I shall attempt to put a photo below…