Can you comment on how to increase horsepower on a 1998 1300 Tour Cruiser, at a reasonable cost.
This is a question asked about a decade too late, unfortunately. The 1996-1998 Standards, Tour Classics, and Tour Deluxes benefited greatly from Yamahas' decision NOT to offer the VMax in Europe and Asia with V-Boost - leaving non-US customers some 50+ horsepower down. The VMax had the look BUT they were being blown away by any literbike on the market, and, worse yet, couldn't compete with the Honda V65 Magna, a bike similarly styled and engineered, introduced four years earlier, and thoroughly "shaken out".
Aftermarket to the rescue! Big Air kits, cams, titanium lifter buckets, four-into-four low restriction exhausts, high-capacity water, oil and fuel pumps, tunable ignition systems, oversize front and rear shocks and springs - the best part for Royal Star riders was that many of the accessories were available for their bikes, because of the similarities between the 1200cc VMax and 1300cc Royal Star engines and suspensions.
Now, however, the older VMaxes are historic footnotes, and the Royal Stars haven't received anything but cosmetic upgrades since 1999. The market for Royal Star performance parts in the U.S. is mostly nonexistent; the bikes are usually bought for touring or cruising duties, not stoplight-to-stoplight bashes; reliability, comfort and appearance are the Royal Star's strengths.
I owned a 1998 Tour Deluxe, and searched the Internet for the parts I had used to personalize it. The two survivors of the last decade seem to be: Baron Stealth Big Air Kit - $249.95 (http://www.baroncustom.com/), and Dynatek Dyna 3000 digital ignition $289.99 http://www.dynaonline.com/). Competition Cams dropped their cams, springs, and lifters, and both Bub and Cobra dropped their 4-into-4 and 4-into-2 exhausts. Some of the exhausts are still available for 99- Royal Stars, but that's no help for you.
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