CJ Designs CJDL-650-R

One thing that would make a huge improvement to make the Stroms more offroad capable is a set of 21" and 17" (18"?) SPOKE wheels to replace the heavy and fragile cast rims.

Affordable wire wheels that is.

Woody can make a great set of wheels but I can't afford that.

RAD makes hubs for the Stroms but again, they are out of my price range.

My plan is to use the wheels from a 91 DR650 parts bike if I can make them work, but I haven't measured to see if it is even possible.

Maybe Warp 9?...

Spoke wheels would be a great item for your Strom Kits, I believe.

I fitted a DR hub to the back of mine so it does fit. Although mine was a later model one.

Flats are considerably rare events but still occur now and then. To patch a flat on Wee wheels is a simple job, as on ordinary tubeless tires.
Fitting spoke wheels will mean to patch a flat, one has to pull the wheel off the bike; on the Wee it is a bit more complicated than on any real DS, especially lighter, bikes; then get the tube out, put a new one in, and put the wheel back in. Breaking the bead might have been more or equally difficult/easy job as on proper DS bikes, depending on the wheel used. However, in case of a flat, one still need to carry a spare tube, a set of tire irons and probably a bead breaker. A tube plus a tire irons set easily equals a 1 kg mass, which somewhat mitigates mass economy gained on spoke rims/hubs.
Another thing to consider is safety, a flat of a tube wheel doing a HWY might mean serious crush with according consequences to the rider, the same event of a tubeless tire usually means a delay in travel time only.
No doubt, there are tubeless spoke wheels, but the price of them bites.
Anyway, changing the front fork, triple tree, brake, and wheel to DR650 or equal set is easy and considerably cheap and gains something in off road ability, therefore makes some sense. Plus, flats on front occur 10 times less than on the rear.
Changing the rear gains nothing, but look of a “proper DS” bike, therefore to me it is waste of money/effort and a serious degrade performance/maintenance wise.

Actually, depending on the size and width of the rear rim you go to, you could greatly improve your choice of off road oriented tires. In the stock 150/70-17 sizes, choices are limited for sure. The TKC80 is obviously a popular choice, but it wears quickly and is an expensive tire. Heidenau has the K60 which isn't quite as aggressive as the TKC, but lasts way longer. Mita has a few, but again shipping is expensive from Canada and choices are still somewhat limited. Going down to a 130-17 in the rear greatly improves the selection or better yet, going to an 18" means even more choices.

So I don't think its quite as cut and dry as you gain nothing from going to a different size rear rim as tire choices are a big part of this!

No doubt here. But what gonna happen with "proper DS" look? The Wee swing arm and huge/long hull easy accommodates a car tire, a 130/80-17 will be lost there. 18 wheel mostly do not have cushion rubbers in them...

I agree on the spoked wheel setup. More aggressive dirt tires are available in the 130-140 sizes, Stonger setup for off road use. If you destroy the cast rim, NO plug kit will seal a cracked rim, you may have to put a tube in the rim anyways just to get moving. We can change tubes out when needed on our 950 ADV rims on the trail and this will be no differant. Pinch flats really only happen when running stupid low pressures in rugged terrain, in any case I would prefer a pinch flatted tube, than a cracked wheel. This is a Dual Sport bike, not a Dakar bike and not a MX bike. I tend to travel at more reasonable pace when out exploring or traveling with luggage and camping gear. Having a bullet proof wheel setup helps and that's why I prefer spokes.

We used what we had at the time to get this on the trail. A 17" spoked and 18" spoked "CUSH DRIVE option will be ready for testing as soon as I get my lathe moved to the shop to work on a some spacers. Rear Brake rotor, cush drive and hub/ rim setup is done for a 17" wheel test. We are working with Warp 9 to make this a production rear wheel option in the future.

And, if you want to run street rubber you can put the CAST 17" rear rim back on and put on a matching front too.

Now if the snow/ice goes away this weekend, we might be able to get more REKLUSE EXP testing in and maybe even the new REAR wheel setup.

Exactly my thinking.
Cast wheels are fine on the street.
That is great news about the (future) spoke wheel option with Warp 9.
I am very happy with my Warp 9 front wheel (DR650 street tracker).

A Rekluse EXP will be a fantastic option for a Wee Adventure bike!

So does anybody know if any of this stuff will work with a V-Strom 1000?

Pretty cool. Had an sv 650 great motor. A front and rear spoked vstrom 650 would be a great bike with the suspension mods shown.

I don't know for sure, but when looking up parts I think most of the front end parts are the same, (at least bearing sizes) I would not be surprised if the frame is very close too. But I don't know 100% yet. We'll need a 1000 to try it out on. I have a feeling it would be a pretty simple install on the 1000 also once I get this all sorted out.

The fork internals, axel, etc shouldn't matter. The only thing that needs to match is the steering head tube to mount the triples. Once those are mounted the fork tubes, axel, wheel are all from a dr650 (or whatever other bike).

Compared with similar mods done years ago, now is the right time for a kit. Why? Cheap and abundant dl650s are coming to the used market. If you could get Warp 9 to produce a rear hub for or adapt a current hub they offer to fit the rear of the bike, that would be a huge step forward, an affordable rear wheel with spokes.

Very interesting! I'd consider buying a kit if the price is right. Ill at least keep an eye out for a salvaged new front end.

The few times I really took my Wee off road the suspension was so flimsy it felt like the bike was going to crack in half. I gave up on taking it off-road an geared it toward being a full on road bike. It is a lot of fun on road but could be a good DS bike with the right mods. Interesting thread! It is true what someone else said about the motor, it has a poor power curve for off road riding.

Please explain more if you can???

I have found the power to be very linear and friendly off road. Much more mellow than my 950's yes, but that helps with traction and tire life.

You can only get so much HP to the ground in the dirt anyways.

What were you running for gearing? I feel the Stock gearing is much too tall for off road trail use, but that is easy to fix and a common issue on most DS type bikes out of the box.

Any new estimates as to when this kit will available to the public?

Nothing yet. Still working on shop move and won't start on offering "KITS" until I get that done and room to work. We got hit with some crazy NOV storms Sunday so I didn't get anymore testing done. I need to get the shop done so I'm not working out of 5 garages with tools everywhere. Should give everyone enough time to find there DRZ400 forks, front wheel and brakes.

Good to know. So you will be selling just the triple tree and clamps. We will have to find our own forks, wheel, etc. And it is designed around the DRZ400 sized fork tube. Are these all correct assumptions?

I'm really looking forward to this when you have it ready.

Many options and "KITs" are possible.

We could also make them work with the 50mm WP extreme forks and front end.

We planned this as a EBAY build for shopping for parts and to make it user friendly and cost effective, I hope to offer as much or as little as the end user needs. These triple clamps have a 49mm ID. Any tube with that size could work.

How about sleeves for the clamps to be able to use other sizes of fork tubes in your triple clamps?

Simple slotted clamp sleeves with a top shoulder to keep them from dropping out would be easy to machine in any inner I.D. with an O.D. of your custom clamps.
That would allow us to source many front ends that are available.
Those sleeves would be a great addition to your parts kit availability.

I think…

And don't some USD forks have a different size top & bottom clamp?
Having the various sleeve sizes would really open up the fork choices and you would only need one triple clamp size.

Using the Suzuki DRZ front end is great for parts interchange but there are many good choices on eBay from other bikes.

I will be able to make custom triples for a price if curtain forks are required by some rider. I don't like the idea of double clamping rings on forks seeing serious offroad use, even though it is easier.

USD fork have larger OD, and will limit turning radius as they will hit the frame sooner. That is why I stuck with conventional DRZ/ WP forks. They are plenty good IMO for what this bike is built to handle.

If I need USD MX style forks, Then I'll work on that when the AWD frame kit is started.....