horn replacement

can I replace horn through inner panel without taking off fairing

will denali sound bomb fit in stock location

Re: hoen replacement

1gopokes1 said:

can I replace horn through inner panel without taking off fairing

will denali sound bomb fit in stock location

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I saw a video where they took the Denali horns that would pop apart and put it were the stock horn was but of course the fairing lowers were off for the video

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1gopokes1 said:

can I replace horn through inner panel without taking off fairing

will denali sound bomb fit in stock location

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"Can" is relative. Let's just say it will be MUCH more difficult leaving the lower fairing on. Plus, in order to do it right, you will need to get rid of that worthless stock beeper and install a relay triggered by the stock horn wires, fed by a fused 12v connection to the (+) lead on the battery or hot side of the solenoid, and connected to a pair of loud, high draw, electric Fiamm Hiway Blasters, or Stebel Nautalus, / WoLo Air horns. The air horns draw around 18 amps.

1gopokes1 said:

can I replace horn through inner panel without taking off fairing

will denali sound bomb fit in stock location

Click to expand...

The Denali SoundBomb Mini is 113 decibels and 5 amp draw. I think this would be pretty much plug and play.
Has anyone fitted one to either an 11 or a 13, are they loud?
Upt'North.

Upt' North said:

Has anyone fitted one to either an 11 or a 13, are they loud?

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Never done a Denali, but I have done both the Stebel Nautilus and the Fiamm Freeway Blasters (hi/lo horns) on my ST1100s. Either one will wake up most brain dead cagers (from personal experience!) Neither of these two horns are 'plug and play'. Easiest way is to pigtail off the original wires to the stock horn to fire a relay to sound the horn. I found the Stebels to be very prone to failure if any water got in the trumpet.

Uncle Phil said:

Never done a Denali, but I have done both the Stebel Nautilus and the Fiamm Freeway Blasters (hi/lo horns) on my ST1100s. Either one will wake up most brain dead cagers (from personal experience!) Neither of these two horns are 'plug and play'. Easiest way is to pigtail off the original wires to the stock horn to fire a relay to sound the horn. I found the Stebels to be very prone to failure if any water got in the trumpet.

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Unc,
Does 5 amp draw sound ok to you with standard wiring. I appreciate that fitting a relay isn't rocket science, well not quite. But the reviews on the DSBM are pretty good and they seem to be fitting them without altering wiring. Although having just replaced the L/H bar switch this winter I don't want to do it again when the horn switch melts!
Ta,
Upt'North.

Upt' North said:

Unc,
Does 5 amp draw sound ok to you with standard wiring. I appreciate that fitting a relay isn't rocket science, well not quite. But the reviews on the DSBM are pretty good and they seem to be fitting them without altering wiring. Although having just replaced the L/H bar switch this winter I don't want to do it again when the horn switch melts!
Ta,
Upt'North.

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I tend to 'over build' to be on the safe side as I'd hate to let the smoke out of the wires just when I'm out in the middle of nowhere.
But from the what I can find, a 5 amp draw looks like requires a 14awg wire. I don't remember what size the horn wires are but I think they are pretty small so they may be 14awg.

http://www.powerstream.com/Wire_Size.htm

The stock horn wires appear to be 16ga.

Thankyou to you both, if anyone has fitted these I would love to know whether it's worth 20 pounds sterling or not.
Upt'North.

jmcarruth said:

The stock horn wires appear to be 16ga.

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Then they might be a little 'light' at 3.7 amps for a 5 amp draw - that is assuming I'm reading from the correct column (Max Amps For Power Transmission). That would definitely make me nervous!

I don't do nervous.
Well not since I stopped drinking whisky.
Upt'North.

If it were something that was always on then 16 ga. would be a concern. But since it is the horn and we only pulse it once in a while. 16 ga. at 5 amps will be just fine.

spiderman302 said:

If it were something that was always on then 16 ga. would be a concern. But since it is the horn and we only pulse it once in a while. 16 ga. at 5 amps will be just fine.

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Thanks Spiderman.
What you say makes sense, most horn pushes are probably a fraction of a second, unless of course there is impending death.
Upt'North.

As I say, I 'overbuild' ... ;-)

Put WOLO 139 db BadBoy horn on ST1300 , Then , per U.P. , I went to Hi & Lo Fiamm sets for the GoldWing & little Aero.

The wiring is more than up to the task for a 5A horn. I've added a FIAMM Hiway Blaster (Low) to a couple of bike with no problems whatsoever. When I added a second one a relay was used. The wiring is in no real danger but it might be a tad limiting to the sound output. My real concern was the horn button. Just fine for 5A but I was concerned for double the draw.

There's a video or two on YT for the Denali Mini Bomb. To my ear (listening to a online video so roll the dice) it sounds very much like my single FIAMM which is noticeable but it won't startle or intimate those riders/drivers who don't really care. But it's significantly louder than stock. The single FIAMM was PnP on the ST1300. I had the fairing lower off already so I slapped it on.

I also take manufacturers' dB rating with a lot of salt. I don't know any that provide details on how they measure the sound. WebBikeWorld would be more trustworthy.

One day a set of horns from a GL1800 may adorn my ST1300. They've got the best 'car' sound of any bike horns I've heard. I don't care for the shrill sound of the electric airhorns but that's a personal preference.

As Robert said, there is more in the circuit than just the wire. If you are sure of the current draw, then you can probably get away with it, but I would want to know what the current draw of the OEM horn was (thereby telling us what Honda designed the circuit to handle). And if you use one new horn, then you might get away with it. For the best sound, you are better off with larger wire (and less voltage drop) being switched by a relay. Now the horn switch sees the low electrical load of the relay's coil (use the old horn wires to control the relay) and will probably never die. (Never say never). New wires from a fusebox or fused from the battery then feed the normally open contacts on the relay thence to the horn(s).

If you mount two horns, replacing one OEM horn, you are doubling the load on the wiring

Look at this chart, for giggles.....Linky

There maybe less than 10 feet of wire in the horn circuit. 16 ga wire would be 40 milliohms, at 5 amps it would drop 0.2 volts and loose 1 watt of power in the wire out of 70 watts being delivered to the horn.
If the horn drew 18 amps it would drop 0.72 volts and loose 13 watts in the wire out of 245 watts to the horn. The 13 watts is what heats the wire.

70 watts is loud, 245 watts is really really loud!
5 amps is fine with the existing wiring. But I would use a relay and 12 ga. wire for the 18 amp horn. Over building is always better.

Power lost in wire is a square function. If you mount two horns, replacing one OEM horn, you have four times the load on the wiring!

spiderman302 said:

But I would use a relay and 12 ga. wire for the 18 amp horn. Over building is always better.

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That's what I did when using two FIAMMs on my GL1000. With 12ga I didn't have to worry about most any wire length or load. I did make an initial wiring error where the horn button was always live. That startled me several times in the garage until I corrected it.

spiderman302 said:

70 watts is loud, 245 watts is really really loud!
5 amps is fine with the existing wiring. But I would use a relay and 12 ga. wire for the 18 amp horn. Over building is always better.

Power lost in wire is a square function. If you mount two horns, replacing one OEM horn, you have four times the load on the wiring!

Click to expand...

Wait a minute. Methinks you have confused the two terms. If you have two horns on the circuit, you double the load - the amps for one horn times two. Power is volts times amps and is not considered the load - it is the energy delivered to the utilization equipment that can do work (creat a magnetic field, turn a shaft, heat a filament to incandescence, etc.).

And iirc, MCN did a review of horns a while ago, and they used a sound level meter to check loudness. I think the max was around 129 db on the A scale (not positive here, this goes back many articles and a few years) but there was not a direct correlation between current draw and volume - the reason being the efficiency of the horn. A car horn that works by compressing air and blowing that against vibrating reeds and out a volute will have a different efficiency than an electromagnet in your old fashioned door buzzer.