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New bike for bijouspud at Xmas. He could use a lower gear or two.
It’s running 10spd deore. The front ring doesn’t look switchable (kiddie cranks) with a 40t ring. 11-32 out back.
Can I go to a 11-42t cassette? Will that need a new mech?
In all honesty if you're prepared to spend new cassette, chain and rear mech money I'd just get new cranks with a 104BCD! 40T ring is huge, new cranks with a 32 shouldn't be too expensive.
Microshift looks pretty cost effective way of lower gearing.
This PSA may help:
https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/psa-drivetrain/
I’d swap out the cranks for something that takes 28,30 or 32.
If you're after short 32t cranks, these work well with deore 10 speed
I put a ZTTO 9 speed 11-46 on my youngests old bike. Had to swap the mech to a 2nd hand alivio as the XT (also 2nd hand) on it didn't have a long enough throw to cope with the range. I could potentially have used a range extender instead. ZTTO do similar in 10spd. They are a wee bit heavy and I don't know what the longevity would be like but the loads applied by a child would be less. Having said that he did sheer the mech off so maybe I'm wrong about that. Hes back on the original setup now as he got stronger very quickly and keeps up (when he wants to) very well.