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Thuekr
Not sure if this has come up here yet. A little over a year ago, I installed the Microshift Advent super short shifters and derailleurs on my boys' bikes. The boys are now 8 and 6, for perspective. These components are meant for 8 sp cassettes with a large cog up to 38t. I left the stock 5 and 6 sp freewheels on their bikes and adjusted the limits accordingly. Here's my long-term, no maintenance, often stored outside, review.
The derailleurs are chunky, but solid. They have a "clutch" That can be switched on and off. The limit screws are all nice 3mm rather than Phillips. I like that. There's very little plastic on the derailleurs and they feel like a significant upgrade over common Tourney so often found on kids bikes.
Speaking of upgrades, I opted for the nicer of the two shifter options. They're trigger type shifters and feel really nice for such a budget component. The throw is very light and not too long for small hands. An enormous improvement over the Tourney twist shifters that take big kid hand strength to operate.
Install was very straight forward. No tricks, just install derailleur, shifter, cable, chain, and set limits. These are meant to be 1x and that's how I set them up. Shifting is crisp and easy straight away.
In use: My boys immediately noticed that they had an easier time shifting than before. We are fortunate to live on the same street as 13ish other young kids who all run free, play together, and bike -alot-. Kids being kids and living in a very quiet area, the bikes are regularly dumped in the yard only to be picked up again the next day to be ridden again. Rain or shine. These bikes are not babied in the slightest. They experience torture from kids and Mother Nature regularly. From longer around town rides, to jumping ramps in the street, I don't think either kid has dropped a chain yet. I call that a win. After all this time, I just did the first tune on them. New chains and cables. A bit of lubrication on pivots and shifter internals. Both derailleurs are in great functional shape, though they show the scars of hard use. One shifter is crisp and perfect, while the other is missing one index that seems not to affect its performance at all. They're back up and running and the boys are still happy with them.
All in all, I would absolutely recommend these bits as a low maintenance, budget option for anyone, but especially kids. Shifting action is way better than the common kid bike parts, and longevity seems to be there. Even in the face of utter neglect.