I've been thinking a lot about this cvt set up of yours gwy and I was thinking what might be a big help to you is if you change up the type of throttle you're using. As far I as I know, you're using a speed based throttle, which is good for a sort of direct drive set up like most electric bikes, but might not be ideal for your application.
My interpretation of a cvt in a normal ICE engine application is that it juggles the ratio on the pulleys to always keep the motor in the optimum rpm range of your motor. When engine rpm increases, ideally those rollers fan out to adjust the pulley to a ratio that is best suited for the motor at that point in its rpm range. As a driver, you scale the amount of power you want to put through the system with the motor and the CVT translates that into wheel speed.
Currently what you're doing is a bit counter-intuitive, you're adjusting the rpm range of your motor directly and then letting the pulleys juggle around faster or slower according to the amount of rpm your motor's running at. This is probably why you're pulling less current than you did before using a CVT when you try to accelerate. What I think would be ideal is if you use a current-based throttle so that you're directly adjusting how much power you want to put through the system and the CVT be used at its greatest potential.
This way, you could optimize your set up so that you can focus more on a higher top speed and not worry as much about getting it to engage properly at lower rpm because you'll be able to crank the throttle and get full amperage out of the motor to get it up to speed.
Fechter's Current-Based Throttle: http://endless-sphere.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=78&hilit=current+based+throttle
I'm not claiming to be the expert, but please give it some thought. If someone can spot the error in my logic here then please do so.