After much trial and error, I discovered (with help from my lbs) a trick to get v brakes to work with v brake-compatible road levers**. Forget pin placement, spring set screws, or travel agents, a traditional set of v's are too long to work on a road frame (the return spring flops around and won't make contact with the arm-no return tension for the cable). I guess mini-v's are an option or canti's (but they're tough to adjust and not as powerful). Simply reverse the washers on either side of the brake pad post, putting the largest washer on the opposite side of the brake arem and the smaller ones nearest the pad. This allows the arms to approach a more normal position, closer to the wheel, making contact with the return spring. Now you can tweak the cable tension, spacing, and spring set screws. The levers can be a little spongy, but you can work that out with fine tuning. Also, there's very little pad/rim clearance if the wheel comes out of true. It's kind of a compromise but it works.