A gear chart question. Since you are on the internet, I presume you have access to a spreadsheet program such as Excel. Make yourself a gear chart. Put the chainrings along the top row. Put the cogs down the left hand side of the spreadsheet. Thr formula to use is Chainring teeth divided by cassette cog teeth times wheel diameter in inches. Gives commonly used gear inches. Multiply by Pi 3.14 and you get the number of inches traveled with one turn of the crankarm. For the chart, figure 26.5" diameter for 700C wheels. Maybe 27" if they are fat touring tires. For 26" mountain bike wheels, figure 26" diameter if fat 2.0 inch knobbies. Figure about 24.5" diameter if 1.25 inch slicks.
With your two setups, you have roughly the same low gear for both. Lots more high gears (52 ring) with the 700C. I doubt these are used much when touring. Useful for recreational riding. Lots more low-middle gears (32 ring) with the 26" bike. I doubt these low-middle gears are used much at any time. In essence you have a very usable range on both bikes, the 42 ring on the 700C and the 44 ring on the 26" bike. And a climbing range with the inner ring on both bikes.
An important thing to consider when looking at gears is the shift pattern. And how closely spaced the gears are in the usable range, 50-90 gear inches.
