HORNS?

[baylensman]

Well I see here that a lot of you mention STEBEL horns. I did a lot of research so far and I am wondering why? Most every tite that sells them the consumer reveiws are either 5 star, which are written the day of or right after install and the majority are 1 or 2 stars that are written after a couple of months. It seems the reliability is rather poor.

Does any one here have expereience with a particular model still being loud after a year or so? Any other brands or types to look at. I don't mind running another relay or making a bracket and tab set up if needed. I WANT PANIC INDUCING VOLUME !! I' texters driving with their heads down and drifitng into my lane, andpedestrian looking at their POKEMON screens and walking right into traffic

[vzuden]

I have been using the Wolo brand. I've had it for about 5 years now (moved it from my old bike to the current one). I bought it at O'Reilly Autoparts which happened to be a couple bucks cheaper than the same horn at Harbor Freight.

Member CarbonOne sells a bracket with optional wiring kit that makes it easy to install on the right side where the factory is located. - Highly recommended

[ManiacRider]

Hella horns have been working quite well for me. I had a set of two on my car for two years and they are incredibly loud, 118db when connected directly to the battery. When I sold my car I gave them to my father who has them on his V7 Guzzi. They are mounted right out in the open. No issues with weather or deterioration after two years on his bike. Still loud. If you look around you should be able to find a website selling them for about $50/pair. I'll be putting a new set on my Venture when she's road ready.

[Kretz]

I mounted a two forward facing FIAMM horns (black plastic, snail shell design) on my Vulcan over a year ago. Wired via a relay, supply is direct from battery.

They still perform well & no problems with corrosion, terminals etc. Got them at my local auto supplies/ hardware store (Canadian Tire)

Mine are plenty loud & I got discordant ones to make them just that bit more noticeable. I don't have any dB figures, but figures can be misleading as there is no "standard" for measurement. Claims can be made of 120dB (which is what I think mine are) but at what distance? Higher figures are often measured very close to the horn & are not what people will typically hear.

Mine definitely make people look. They may not be the loudest out there but I'm quite happy. Whether they will be heard over whatever is coming out of the earbuds that many people seem to wear now is debatable.

All I know is that they have made folks aware of my presence on more than one occasion!

I would like to put something similar on the RSTD but finding mounting space for accessories is difficult to find.

Forgot to say: don't "limit" the current the horn wants to pull by reduced wire sizes, Tapping into the supply for another accessory. It can limit the noise they make.

Edited October 25, 2016 by Kretz
added "forgot to say"

[cecdoo]

Never had a problem with my Stebil, was on my 06 for 9yrs still worked fine when I sold the bike. Put a Wolo on the trike last year, still works fine. My bikes are always garaged and I only ride in pouring rain if I have to.

 

Craig

[SilvrT]

I've used both the FIAMM and Wolo with no issues.

 

Here's what I now have on my Road Star and they are very loud.

 

[XV1100SE]

I had my first Stebel for about five years and removed it when the chrome finish was deteriorating. About three years ago I used the brackets that were made by SlowrollWV and mounted a Stebel on each side behind the passenger floorboards. Never had a problem with any of the three and I've ridden in some heavy rain, dust...

[Flyinfool]

I have two of the Bad Boys from Harbor freight. The first one was put on the right side 5 years ago and the second was put on the left side 4 years ago. They both still sound the same as the day they were installed.

As mentioned a few times, It is very important to feed horns all the power they want. Using the existing bikes wiring and switch to feed the horns will reduce volume and will also reduce life expectancy. You must use a relay and at least 14ga wire to feed the horns right from the battery.

 

MOST of the motorcycle and car horns available as aftermarket are rated at 4 inches from the horn. A db rating with no distance is a totally meaningless number that is only good for advertising to the unenlightened masses. If someone is 4" from the horn it is to late to do anything. Sound pressure is reduced by half every time you double the distance. 3db is what it takes to double or halve the sound pressure. Do the math and you can almost yell louder than most horns.

 

I am still working on mounting a train horn to my bike, it is rated at at least 120dba @ 100 yards. That is the minimum spec for a train horn, some are much louder. When I used to work for Prime MFG one of our products was train horns for the railroad industry. All of our horns were tested to meet 150dBa @10 feet. Testing day got really loud in the shop. That will get some serious attention, once they crawl back into the skin they just jumped out of. I have come up with 2 possible ways to do this, just have to decide which way to go.

[snyper316]

Hey just curious fool where did you mount your relay? I did use the horn switch on the bike but got it wired direct to the battery just trying to figure out where to put a new fuse panel and relay setup. Your bike has got to be loud with two of them horns on it, I swear its louder then any car horn I have had.

[djh3]

My stebel got swapped over from my 07 Kawasaki to the RSV. I worked fine when I traded in 2016. Once in awhile I had issues with some corrosion causing it to not work. Mine was mounted by my left foot inside the crash bar there by removing the plastic cover. Some dielectric greased helped out. Since then I have bought a couple knock off looking stebel/bad boys on e-bay. They perform the same in my estimation. Had them on the wifes car and my truck for probably 3-4 years now.

[videoarizona]

I have two Stebel horns...one on my 05 RSV and the other on my 89 VR. One is 1 years old, the other is 3 years old. Ran a relay to them with 12 volts to battery. Works great. Loud and no issues!

[Flyinfool]

I mounted my relay under the seat on the right hand side of the bike. They relays are small, they can be stuffed almost anywhere.

 

I added 3 terminal blocks on top of the air cleaner. One is a ground block that grounds direct to the battery negative, One is wired hot to the battery with a 40A MAXI fuse. the third is wired hot to the battery thru a 40A MAXI fuse and a relay so that it is only hot when the ignition is on. This gives me a nice convenient place to hook up lights and accessories to, and never have to worry about stressing the 30 year old OEM wiring or switches on the bike. All of my grounds for add ons are hard wired up to that ground block and never to the 30 year old frame that wants to rust all connections.