I know that angular strain decreases stability, and that a larger ring decreases the effects of angular strain, so in general a larger cyclic ring would be more stable but how would trans and cis play an effect? Would you still consider a larger ring to be more stable even if trans were involved in a slightly smaller ring? (Stability of cycles sharply goes up from 3- to 6-membered ring, then slightly decreases and remains virtually flat. Trans- is usually more stable than cis-, however, conformational analysis should be performed on a case-by-case basis. Except for the textbook-easy conformational analysis of cyclohexane, for larger cycles it is really convoluted and requires full-blown computational research. The good news is that overwhelming majority of useful cyclic compounds have 6-membered rings!  - GS).