General question about small transmission changes I am trying to wrap my head around the benefit I may get out of small changes regarding my transmission ratio.

Here is the premise:


11-42 cassette (Shimano M7000)
36-26 crankset (Shimano MT600)


I found that I generally don‘t use the lowest gears much - if at all - as the hills around here are more like bumps in the landscape.

That led me to wondering if maybe even small tweaks, like switching to a cassette with less teeth in the lowest gear as well a crank with more teeth would even be recognizable.

To summarize: Would changing above mentioned cassette and crank to 


11-40 cassette and
38-28 crankset


even matter?

I am very interested in your experiences and thoughts about such small changes.

Supplementary question: would that change lead to compatibility issues?

Thanks!
I would say that changing the crankset by 2 teeth is not worth the money it costs. At least try to only change the chainrings first.

Cassettes are much cheaper so it is more natural to start there. However, your current derailleur has the minimum size of the largest cog 40, exactly as you proposed. It won't do much. So thinkink about also increasing the chainrings is natural.

You can calculate the difference using a gear calculator like http://gears.mtbcrosscountry.com If you keep the the smallest cog 11T, which you have to, only larger chainrings can enable you higher speed in flat sections and downhill parts where you control the speed by your power. The denser cassette can only help you to have smaller jumps between sprockets. But with 11-speeds you don't have too large jumps and off-road you don't need such finer ratios as road racer like.

So in the end the chainrings or, indeed, the whole crankset may be be a better investment.

This is your current setup http://gears.mtbcrosscountry.com/#29/2.10I1931I1370

With 28-38 you would get http://gears.mtbcrosscountry.com/#29/2.10I1542I1370

As you can see, your maximum speed at 80 rpm cadence would increase from 35.9 to 37.9 km/h. That means you could keep your cadence lower at higher speed if you want, not that it would be any easier to go high speed.

Changing the cassette to 11-40 does only a very marginal change and I would only do that when having to buy a new one.