No problem, glad it helped a bit.
One thing with touring is accepting that your average speed is just going be less. Even working your ass off, a heavier bike is just going to be slower, and you have to balance out all day effort so that you're ok the next day, and next day and next day.
Sometimes you have a kickass day, a crapload of climbing lets say, so its nice to have a shorter day or a rest day afterwards.
but this is all stuff you have to figure out what works for your body, and of course, we toughen up and get stronger during a trip, but you still have to ride and listen to your body.
oh, re going fast downhill and gearing, i spin that 111 g.i. bike out at about 70kph.
My expeditiony 103 g.i. bike to a bit over 50kph, but have ridden both bikes to 80kph, so going fast isn't about tall gearing, and anyway it's really damn rare that you can hold even 30kph on a touring bike, so spinning out at 50/55k is fine for me. Plus panniers and stuff are a real drag aero wise anyway, and our average speeds are pretty slothlike pretty much in the big scheme of things.
hope you find some good info on recent combos. The dude on pathlesspedalled does lots of gear hacking with recent stuff, so you should be able to find reliable sources for possible options.