Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums Accessories horns of plenty

Plenty of VOLUME that is!!! Today I installed the RIVCO Magnum electric horn set that I got through Eddy. Got 'em all hooked up with a relay and so on... turned the ignition key on, hit the button and began to smile. Oh yeah... theyz LOUD!! The sound of them horns echoed back off the far river bank from where I was and I knew they had been a good investment.

There was something weird (or so I thought) about the installation instructions. RIVCO wanted them mounted facing down, underneath the bike between the rear wheel and the engine on the two centre stand holes. Huh? I had to wonder that if that was the intended mounting site, why chrome them? And wouldn't they pick up a lot of grime, dirt, water and so on from the road which would in turn shorten their lifespan? And wouldn't they be more effective at directing sound out from the bike if they were mounted higher and NOT pointing directly into the ground at a clearance of about 6"? Yeah, I thought that was weird so I went hunting for a better place. What you see below was a tight squeeze (especially for the top horn) but I think they sit there rather well.

Remember... LOUD!!!

I used my horn by accident once, I guess I wasn't paying attention and thought it was the turn signal button. I was more embarrassed by the sound it made than admitting that story!

What did you say??? Now your going to scare all those deer out of the woods!!! They might want it mounted low to bounce the sound waves off a solid object? or get a better reverb?

Good position for volume - that's pretty much where I mounted mine. I think the point of facing them down is to minimise crap and water getting in - and the sound will bounce of the road anyway.

Nice bit of rational thinking their Keith. The horns look excellent and I have no doubt they are an excellent safety add-on besides looking the part.

I know what you mean by the suggested posi also but if I bought your Rivco model, I too would have thought the chrome would have been wasted on their suggested location underneath.

I on the other hand I recently bought a pr of Stebels but bought the Rivco (I think it was Rivco) wiring from Eddy to make installation easier. Anyway, when I realised their suggested location was as you described, I initially thought WHAT??? For some reason I too thought they would just naturally be located where the stock unit was.  

Then when I rationalised the whole thing I actually didn't mind this option. My reasoning was i could leave the oem unit in situ to maintain the original albeit minimalist apearance but due to the wiring, I could piggy back it's wiring back to the underneath posi and in effect have 3 horns instead of 2. Nearly as good as having 3 di*ks Instead of only 2. Lol

Keep in mind though the Stebels are made of plastic so looks isn't really one of their features anyway but the sound is excellent.

Something to be proud of when some youngser on their mob phone forgets to look properly in their side mirror as you blast them back into reality land ha ha

hi Keith, how do they compare price wise with the stebel.

Well done on the install Keith!

Looks good, and I'm sure very audible! I would think, however, that the openings should point downwards, not horizontal. The reason is to keep water and dirt out of the horn itself.

HTH,
H.

They suggest mounting them facing downwards to keep rain, dirt etc out of them as Richard pointed out. The main reason for putting them somewhere other than the front of the frame is because where you have them they block air flow to the oil cooler.

We have several members who've mounted horns there and noone's reported cooking their engines yet, so I don't know if it's that much of a problem. Myself, I mounted a Stebel Nautilus in the same area as you, tho mine's only a single unit and mounts higher up so it doesn't intrude on the oil cooler.

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Today I was working on the signal lights and, from an awkward position, reached for the cancellation button. HONKKKKK!!!!!!!!! I hit the horn button by mistake and scared the living daylights outta myself! Man are they LOUD!!!!

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Ok thats funny mind you, your not the first, glad I'm not the only 1

Man am I stoked!! I just mounted 2 black metal Framm Highway Blaster horns from Napa (E and F notes) side by side w/ bells facing down in place of the OEM baby squeaker on my '05 SM. Each horn is rated at 137 DB! The best part is they cost $45 for the pair and I used the existing wiring which works just fine. They're guaranteed to make a jackrabbit jump out of his skin!

I finally got rid of that crappy stock horn also. Mainly cause of reading this forum I went and got the Fast Eddy stuff and it was a breeze to install. I think I will double nut the stuff though just in case.

make sure you leave lots of room for proper unrestricted airflow to the oil cooler.. mmmmm .. just a thought ...