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Has anybody upgraded the stock beep-beep POS horn? I was almost sandwiched into a divider wall by a lady who didn't see me nor heard my horn or loud D&D's. So, I went to Harbor Freight and bought a "Bad Boy" mini air horn. It even comes with a relay. This thing is super loud...ear-piercing! I had the misfortune to use it the first time...someone pulled out in front of me, and I hit the horn, and she immediately pulled over! I took it she didn't see me. This has happened 3 times since...and the blind drivers pull over in panic. Amazing!

Pics? Part/Item #?? I find myself needing something much louder lately. What is it about warm weather that makes people so oblivious to motorcyclists ?

It is the same as the Stebel Nautilus , JackW has the Bad Boy and we have the Stebel. I rode with Jack and saw and heard the Bad Boy and heard my Stebel of course and they sound about the same and look the same. Bad Boy

Stebel Same price as the Bad Boy.

I went with a Fiamm Freeway Blaster Low Tone on my 07SM on the factory bracket; the Fiamm cost under $12 OTD from the local Advance Auto. Not as badass as a Stebel (my 08 Genuine Rattler scooter has a Stebel), but waaay better than stock.

Interesting factiod: the stock japanese-made horn uses a 7/16" mounting nut, not metric. Go figure.

All that said, my primary horn is my right wrist...

I know where i can get a Stebel DIRT CHEAP, but it's too ugly to put where the stock horn sits. Anybody done a hidden install? Got pics?

I put Wendy's and mine under our seats.

I don't think it is quite as loud but still plenty loud enough. Benny I think mounted his under the seat too if I am not mistaken.

One more thing - How's the quality of the the chrome on that version ? May try to mount it on the downtubes , so I don't want crappy - looking chrome . No .

How long have you had your Steibel? I am deciding between that and the twin Magnum electric. I have had the Magnum before and it was good (but with crappy chrome - black is better) but I had heard the Stebel was unreliable - often didn't work when new or failed after a couple of years. But I would imagine that air horns are louder

This is a great discussion on horns. Love to toot mine, especially at deer. I'm thinking the Stebel will be the best option for that. I'm getting one.

Wade, The chrome looked good on JackW's horn. Ours are not the chrome version since I put them under the seat I didn't see a need.

Rich , we have had them all last season and the beginning of this one now. Rode in heavy rain among other adverse conditions and they have never failed or hesitated to work. What the long term outlook is I am not sure but so far so good.

Oohhh , a HORN thread . I may get a black AND a chrome one and have TWO . Lots of ANIMALS have horns as well . Horns are our friends .
AFRICA has a HORN , it's not loud , but it's hard to get around it on a ship .

A vote for the Stebel or the like - a life saver for me out near Indy on an Interstate. We be some mighty small images within a blind spot.

I mounted mine down on the front frame, on a nasty old piece of scrap flat stock twisted up in a meager abstract tribute to Indian Larry.

Photo added to my prior post...

I've had good luck with a standard low tone car horn, but have thought about
getting an electric air horn. As an aside the Freeway Blaster didn't seem
to be much louder than the standard horn when I tried them.

The Freeway blasters come in either a low or high tone. I've had them on several of my trucks over the years, now have one (can't remember which) on my bike. They seem to work better in pairs. High and low together much more effective.

I read a couple of treads on another Horn site about the Freeway Blaster and if you run two you should run a relay to get the juice to the horns that they need. Two may be too much for the orignial wiring through the switch.

Please educate the ignorant: how difficult are these things to wire up? I very much want to replace the POS horn on my Speedy, but I'm wrench stupid and don't want to accidentally bite off more than I can chew.

Instructions? Or is this a straight bolt-on?

--Jaeger

Definitely relay it up. Once you understand how a relay works, it's simple... Just run a new circuit from the battery, thru the relay, to the horns. Then back to neutral. Then plug the original horn wires into the relay. They reach if you mount it under the tank where the AI used to be. Basically it's a heavy duty switch, activated by the existing horn button, as opposed to a physical switch.

I went with a Stebel last year. Mine came with a wiring kit attached that had all the necessary parts. Think I paid $49 total.

The wife has been complaining about the horn on her Van, so this weekend I solved that problem. Heh, Heh; a Stebel and 2 Freeway Blasters now reside behind the grill. She's happy now - not sure about the neighbors though.

BTW, I picked up a chrome Stebel that my local accessory/leather shop sold me for $20 (instead of $54) because the chrome had started flaking - while still in the package. I can't say I'm impressed by the plastichrome.

Good info, Gents. Thanks! I think a new horn is in my future.



--Jaeger

I used a pair of horns from a 911 Porsche hidden in my bellypan, very loud and commands attention.

If you are looking for a good read - Horns . It looks like these guys did their homework on the topic. As scientific as they could be. I am suprized the Stebel was a failure out of the box when lots of people seem to like them. Not sure if others would say it has as high a failure rate. The article changed my mind on the direction I was going.

Our Stebels are both still working fine but only 2nd season so far. Our horns being under the seat protects them from some weather too though so that could be a factor.

Thanks Adam for turning us on to that horn article. I'm looking into a horn too and that made it easy to decide.

I have been looking, and found a copy of this Ear Cannon Air Horn (http://www.aerostich.com/ear-cannon-air-horn.html) here in Taiwan. From the website description and comments, it looks promising...

"This is a full-power railroad locomotive/ocean liner type compressed air horn squeezed into a bike-mountable package. Totally overkill, until you need to wake up some lethal driver. It’s got both the high and low ear-splitting tones of the individually sold Fiamm Freeway Blaster Horns, plus a little more oomph. The 139dB high and low tone blasters combine via air induction to cut through the din and make the most distracted of drivers drop their cell phones and pay attention. Installs easily on all bikes with a 4.5"×3"×4.5" space for mounting. The loudest motorcycle horn available. If Ethel Merman, Sam Kinison and John Philip Sousa ever had a band, and played through a wall-of-sound amp rack, it would sound like this. 12V. 1 lb 4 oz."

And this one:
"It makes small children cry (or make that trucker-honk-your-horn gesture), bad drivers soil themselves, and that teenage girl with the gigantic sunglasses who pretends no one else exists dump her double latte right down the front of her pretty little blouse and all over the seats of Daddy's SUV."

Can't wait to try it! But will have to learn about relays in the mean time...

Let me know if you get the ear cannon. I would like to hear some first hand comments.

Hi Rev,

I am still recuperating from hear loss from my tryout in the garage today! Say what???

I will go out soon and try it in real life, but judging how loud this thing is, should be no problem clearing the streets in front of me.

An unfortunate twist would be someone taking offense being honked at so loudly. We'll see if I get to start a fight or just get people swerve away!

I don't have a camera mounted on the bike, but I would like to film some reactions to this thing!

Well, I scared a cop with my Stebel this morning at 0600. Unintentionally. I was making a left turn at an intersection, and a LEO turned into my lane from the other direction. Everything was under control until my coffee started to spill. Somehow, between making the turn, grabbing the coffee and cancelling the turn signal, I caught the Stebel.

SKEERED HIM GOOD! Made me laugh.

One thing about getting old, you lose your fear of the uniform and badge. Still have a healthy respect for the gun and the Motorola though.

No. I mounted a cupholder on the left handlebar. It snugs up to the rear of the Roadster shield and holds a large McDonald's coffee very well (and out of the wind). I took a different route that morning that wasn't as smooth as my usual and the coffee bounced around a bit.

I need my McDonald's coffee as I settle in for the morning staff meetings.

Ummm ... okay. So you don't actually drink it while you're riding ... ? I need my morning fix of caffiene too but I use a vacuum flask and wait till I get to work.

Tricky with a full face helmet...
While getting side tracked ... I always dread the sneeze in a full face. Yech!