No need to turn a polyVee belt inside out. The soft Vee side works just fine on flat belt pulleys.
I'd be unsurprised to discover that a polyVee used in that manner actually outperforms an old style leather belt working at (too) short centres on a small lathe. Worked well on my SouthBend Heavy 10. Much better than the leather belt it came with but that was old and neglected.
The back sides of both polyVee and timing belts are generally not that good as driving surfaces. By design in most cases as the back side just runs over a tensioning pulley so low friction reduces belt wear. Double drive surface belts where both sides drive things are somewhat different to the usual type.
Grinding wheel drives should only be just good enough to transmit the power needed for normal use and wheel dressing. That way if you do get a serious dig or jam up the wheel stalls before serious damage is done or, quell horror, it bursts.
Clive