Thanks for the responses.
I pretty much tried everything with stradle cable adjustment trying to get better leverage, but the center pulls on this bike require a very heavy lever pull for anything like agressive brakeing. This bike will use full cable housings from lever to noodle, so no problems there. I am changing levers to longer travel units to match the sensitive pull and the longer cable movment of the v brakes.
Thanks again for confirming the 8mm pivot bore for the V brakes.