Hi Keef,
Agree about the speed. Mine will generally sit at 125 IAS unless I play around with the trim carefully at which point I can get it to sit close to 130 but the first bump will knock it back to 125.
Interesting point about the climb performance. My little 'Piper Indians' book tells me that an Archer II climbs at 790 fpm and an Arrow III or IV at 830 fpm. Doesn't say under which conditions but I would guess that's best rate at max weight. I usually climb at 100-105 knots after about 1000 feet which gives me about 5-600 fpm but gets me there a bit quicker and gives a better forward view.
There is an article on AVWEB somewhere saying that you should not reduce MP in the climb but simply reduce prop speed. The reasoning behind this is that there is an additional slosh of fuel thrown in at absolute full throttle which helps to keep the engine cool. I've not tried this so if anybody has any thoughts on it I'd be interested to hear them!