well, I tried pumping up the tires to around 100 and that does help (though I still cant seem to get the same speed as my other road bike...) but at least its getting dialed in to me and I have about 56 miles on it now.

It seems that the sweet spot gear for me is L2xR6-R7. Unfortunately, that does cause some "rattling" noise (but to be fair, it was the same with my Trek 7100...).