You don't mention what bike you have. But if you have it set up the way you like it, functionally and aesthetically, I would keep it and upgrade the engine. I have an 06 that I have sunk a lot of money into, so I opted to keep mine and build the motor. It is way more fun to ride now with over 100 hp.

Shakey

 

88" seem to be very reliable, 96" seem to have issues with primary ratio and the 6 spd trans. 103" seems good so far .

It is hard to beat cubic inches....the 95" upgrade is the least expensive ft lbs / $ upgrade for the 88" TC and is very reliable. You will be getting new cylinders, pistons, wrist pins, and rings so the only thing left in the top end is the valves and gaskets. Not sure of your miles but have your heads checked and if necessary serviced. Cams and high compression pistons increase torque and horse power but also increse stresses on valvtrain and anything that shakes on the bike.

Cylinders and pistons with new rings and wrist pins can be bought NOS on ebay for around $500 or buy new at the dealership. Either way it is a drop in the bucket compared to the price of a replacement.

I did get burnt once buying pistons on ebay as the rings were swaped with cheaper dead soft rings.

 

Why stop @ 95"? Hillside Cycles and VTwin Performance are forum sponsors and both will work with you to put together a " package". Call Scott at Hillside and Kirby at VTwin, chat them up, tell them what you are looking for, talk $$, make some decisions and get started. BTW, you can have power and reliability for a reasonable cost.

 

Even if ya do the labor, doing a proper 95-98" top end build (pistons/bore/cams/geardrive/lifters/adj. pushrods/headwork/gaskets/miss) with a proper tune (tuner/dyno) will put ya over $2K. But ya will have something worth while. Just depends how much ya like the rest of your bike? Any bike ya get could use the same kind of upgrade...

 

If your 88" is an 06, the heads are great for bolt in cams. Same heads as later model, larger displacement, bikes. Does your bike even have a stage 1? Camming the 88", a 2n1, hi flow ac and a some sort of fuel management will wake your bike up! Depending on how many miles are on the bike, you may need to take the cam chest apart anyway to change out the cam chain tensioners.

 

I'm in the same spot. I can't decide whether to stop at redoing the cam chest, plus add a 2-into-1 or "go all the way" with a 98-inch build, and ported heads.

Will I gain good numbers with just upgrading the cams, replacing the tensioners with gear drive and adding a 2-into-1 exhaust? I calculate around $1500 for this much, including dyno. Love my bike, but is it worth the $$$?

Subscribed.

 

With help from Scott @ Hillside, and Doc's Performance tuning.
I took my 88" to a 98" with 108hp and 111tq. It has 105tq @ 2500 rpm.
It's a total sleeper, I think I had $1800. in parts, I did all the work myself. Once it's tuned there's no reason not to have FI. I didn't want it either but now it's great. The tune costed me more than normal, with breaking it in on the dyno and a few bugs to work out while it was there, but worth it. Total was 3k or so, but it will pull the front tire at a roll.

I do have my '03 88" Softail, TW6G cams, Mikuni carb, Crane ign & coil. RB Racing pipe, 88hp & 92TQ. Runs so good I won't do a big bore kit to it. I know it can run better but really runs nice, it's the happiest bike I've ridden.
Me personally I like the shorter stroke engines.

 

I bought a 99 Electra Glide Standard with a carb, it had 36k on it, the first thing I did was upgraded my cam chest,was done last winter for $1,200, new everything in there with SE 204 cams, they gave me a winter discount, bike can run with stage 1 96's, then I did a 97 big bore and now it leaves 96's and will stay with stage 1 103's.
If you get the work done during the winter you can get good discounts. All of my work was about $2,500. Also the older TC88's from 99 to 02 had the best bottom ends, all forged with with Timkin crank bearings making them almost a bullet proof bottom end for more horsepower.

 

I have a 2001 RK Police, FLHPEI.
V &H Big Shot Duals, stage 1 air cleaner.
It has a PC, just not sure if it's working right. Haven't got a cable yet to try downloading a map. Just been messing with the buttons. It just needs some more guys.

 

I thought 95" was as large as you can go with the TC88 before boring the cases and or stroking the wheels is required....

My point is the top end can be pulled off in the frame and bumped up to 95" cheap and easy in your garage on a Saturday afternoon for the do-it yourselfer