Finding a lower gear

Hi folks,

Thinking of trying something out, maybe pointless.

A forum Search yielded nothing which I was surprised by...

So the problem is that a couple of times when fully laden touring (or when quite hungover) I've had to shamefully get off and push. (Rowsley Bar springs to mind)
I'm running stock 105, 2x10, about 7 or 8 years old.

A few places have suggested I can get away with putting a 10 speed MTB cassette (11-42!?!) on with 9 speed MTB long cage mech as they have same pull ratio as 10 speed road.

I'm not a natural climber, so having somewhere to go at the bottom end would help, especially when panniered up.

Anyone tried it or offer advice other than "be fitter"?...

What are your current cassette and chainring?

I did it a year and a half ago with Tiagra 4700. Went from 11-34 to 11-40(Sunrace) using the D-link. I fully used a 116 links kmc chain.

I think D link is a good option. One thing, Tiagra derailleur seems rather long(at least on my Genesis) but as I much as I figure it out I could have done the change with-out Dlink providing that I would stay away from the largest 4 cogs in combination with the 50T chainring.

I guess if your derrailler is a short one you would still be able to do it avoiding large-large combinations. However the 42T might be too large.

With D-link in the 50 to 40 combination the derailleur was quite streched and I stayed away from it, as under load I suspected that the chance of snaping would be very high.

Recently I change the chairing from 50/34 to 40/24, as I am really poor with hills and to my shame I am not that old.

A quick search on youtube will give you quite a lot of videos about this. If I remember right, at the time whent I did it, there was one with 105.

A correction. D-link is actually RoadLink.

Here is a video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNpdLrlN4HI

11-28 and 34-51 or 53?

Ahh amazing, thanks

Here another one. This one moves from 10 spd 11-28 to 11-42. Seems to be closer to your wish.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vvDvZViRFN8

Here another one.

Ledge, thanks very much.

11-28 and 34-51 or 53?

Those chainring numbers don't make a lot of sense. Probably a 50/34 (compact), or 52/39 (traditional).

Provided you have a medium cage rear derailleur, get an 11-34 cassette and/or a 50/34 crankset (if you don't have one already). That should be enough for most non-loaded riding.

If you want to go lower, get a sub-compact crankset (46/30), along with the bigger cassette.