Alternative cranksets for a cross-country mountain bike larger than 48t I have to replace my chain and gears on my 28'' cross-country mountain bike and I like to use the opportunity to make some modifications. I've tried to read up on this and I already learned a lot from previous questions here, but nothing fits quite right or the answers are too old to be relevant in part searches now.

Currently I'm using a Shimano XT drivetrain with a 10speed 11-34 rear set and a 26-36-48 crankset. The shifters are just Deore. The bike and parts are roughly 8-10 years old.

I'm rarely using the lowest gear but I find myself wanting for a higher one.

I figured the newer hubs with 10t smallest gear need new wheel hubs because of their small diameter, so this might be not an option.
The 48t seems to be already the largest chainring offered by Shimano in the XT range.

Is there anything I can do to get a >50t chainring on that bike while keeping the front and read XT derailleurs? I'm changing rear cassete, chain and chainrings anyway. Any other manufacturer that offers compatible equipment? Is there a Shimano road series that works with XT? Can I mix-and-match chainwheels from MTB and road series on my existing crank? Would it work with a new crankset? I think the bearings are worn anyway...

Any help much appreciated..
Wanting a bigger ring indicates you'd like a higher gear, not a lower one. Low gears are your climbing gears.

Part of the answer depends on which front derailleur you have. Front derailleurs have a profile to their outer cage that needs to match well with the profile of a given chainring size in order to perform well and not cause derailment. If you have a hybrid or trekking type triple FD whose spec sheet lists compatibility up to 48t, then pushing up to 50 might work okay, but it might also be pretty mediocre. If you want to really go nuts, some success can be had be grinding the shape different, but it's easy for this to go south.

I don't think that 50t 104mm BCD chainrings for derailleur use exist. Narrow-wides in 50 and 52 do exist if you wanted to 1x it. There are numerous questions here about how to determine if you want to do that.

If you wanted to spend some money, you could easily do what you want here by getting a road shifter, front derailleur, and crank.

Many bikes with the sort of gearing you've got will encounter clearance problems with the chainrings if you go any bigger.