Jon
Did you run the numbers on going from 42-52 to 26-36?

I like to use this program.
http://home.earthlink.net/~mike.sherman/shift.html

On the bike I showed in the above post I also had a 42-52 with a 13 thru 24 cassette (7 cogs)
I would have liked the 26t chain ring maybe but would have lost too much on the high end doing it that way even if it had cleared the chain stay and I could have lowered the FD enough both I couldn’t do.

The chain line was much better working off the larger rings 32-44 and the reduction in low gearing was quite a bit and as practical as I could have without losing too much on the other end. The center position (32t) works across the whole cassette and gives me gear inches between 35 and 64. The 4 inner largest cogs are redundant so I don’t care about chain line but the 3 outer smallest cogs that chain line straight extend my range of gear inches 72 thru 89. For me that was exactly what I wanted for the hills around here. The nice thing about the gear calculator is it will show you at what speed and RPM you will spin out. My cadence doesn’t get much above 80 RPM and that gave me a top speed of about 22 MPH. More than fast enough for me and on down hills I just coast.

What gears do you have in the back?