air horn

carefull now!

Hi lads, just wondering if any1 has fitted an air horn to their bike, I was looking at the screaming banshee or the stebel, any1 any preference or problems with them? Or trouble with the guards!

CJhaughey

Stebel Nautilus are supposed to be good horns but make sure you mount it where water can't get into the horn.

carefull now!

Fancied that one myself but wanted to try keep the stock horn for friendly or accidental beeps, apparently the banshee has a control unit that piggybacks your stock bits and does the hard bits for you. Just wanted to see if anybody's tried them or more importantly had problems with them! Warranty is no use if I'm posting back and forth to America!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9ZWYTSDb8w

looks the biz!

Please Kill Me

The Stebel are savage and will more than do the job.

For the laugh I got a truck horn (trumpet) and hooked to a compressor and relay and stuck it on an old bike, and it frightened the sh!te out of many a taxi-man!!! :pac: :pac:

I used to have a dixie horn in my car,
mad craic making people jump!

two wheels good

The Nautilus needs to be wired via a relay and is bulkier. The Steibel Magnum usually doesn't a relay and is plenty loud enough.

A budget option is to get a secondhand car horn - snail shell type. They're much louder than the standard disc horn. If it doesn't have two spade connectors be sure to get the two pole connector with it.

KamiKazi

Stubby can and a heavy right hand, far more effective

Hotblack Desiato

Halfords do a knock-off dual air horn kit for about 20 euro. It's what's on my bike now and is very effective, expect to replace it every 2 or 3 years though (I'm on my 2nd replacement set now, the bike had expensive Stebels when I got it but they didn't last any longer than the knock-offs, still failed after a couple of years.)
You can get the same set on the internet under the 'Ring' brand, try the classic car forums too.
Proper f**k off air horns on a bike are great

The Stebel Nautilus etc. aren't the same, I'm talking about the type with a separate compressor and trumpets.

JimmyCrackCorn

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xr1T5WLPpAY

positron

I like the idea of a really loud horn on the bike, but apart from the fun or to express an occasional 'WTF' to othe road users, I don't really think it would be all that useful when you are actually getting into a tricky situation. Truly dangerous situations happens so quick, I don't think horn would be in our list of emergency/evasive actions to take, that's how I feel about it anyway.

two wheels good

positron wrote: »

...... I don't really think it would be all that useful when you are actually getting into a tricky situation. Truly dangerous situations happens so quick, I don't think horn would be in our list of emergency/evasive actions to take, that's how I feel about it anyway.

It's true, when you're already in trouble sounding the horn can be a futile distraction from the need for evasive action. But sounding the horn earlier might help avert the danger in the first place - along with anticipation and good observation.

Cars are so well sound-proofed now, with a radio or music playing it's often difficult to hear other vehicles.
I find the extra decibels very useful and am not shy about using them as intended by RotR - to let other road used know of my presence. (I'll admit to directing the decibels at mobile phone users too.)

CJhaughey

two wheels good wrote: »

Cars are so well sound-proofed now, with a radio or music playing it's often difficult to hear other vehicles.

Or worse, people driving with headphones in. They can't hear sirens, how will they hear a horn?
They should be prosecuted for driving without due care and attention IMHO.
This includes bikers!

positron

I ride with earphones on under the helmet and I can certainly hear the sirens, and I can even hear the traffic and my own bike - you just have to set the music / radio to the right volume level - just enough to block some of the wind noise, but not enough to deafen you against horns / sirens.

I don't know why people wear earphones while driving a car - I can only imagine they are probably expecting a call and doesn't have hands free?

CJhaughey

positron wrote: »

I don't know why people wear earphones while driving a car - I can only imagine they are probably expecting a call and doesn't have hands free?

They have an old car that doesn't have BT connectivity and they use their MP3 players instead of the car stereo.

Thinkingaboutit

Nearly all my bikes have airhorns. The only problem is where battery charge might be really low. A lot of standard horns are really quiet, making some dinky little noise suitable for some toy. They are a good idea. It wakes some people up, and alerts some who were disturbed during a phone call while going badly around a corner. My old Farina car, has a pair of airhorns. Good things.