I've spent the last year upgrading an old Trek hybrid and I spent a lot of time running different crankset/cassette combinations and had decided on the Deore 48/36/26 trekking crankset. About a week ago someone mentioned the 44/32/22 Deore and I ran some combinations and it might work even better. I prefer small jumps in my gearing so the smaller chainrings will allow me to have a tighter cassette while still maintaining small jumps, as Sixty Fiver mentioned. That is a huge advantage for me. The crankset is the last major component I need to upgrade so this was timely information for me.