[Renegade1978]

How loud, in db, is the stock horn on a Burgman 650? I'm looking at replacements, but won't have the opportunity to actually hear them, so I have to rely on db measurements.

 

[dgithens1]

I live in the DC area and commute on mine, I upgraded to the Screaming Banshee horn with the modulating headlight, I love this horn because it really gets peoples attention! Just wanted to offer that idea for a replacement.

 

[swshana]

How difficult was it install the Screaming Banshee horn? I also live in the Washington, DC, area and need a louder horn on my 650.

 

[QuantumRift]

Horn measurement is subjective. Most measurements are taken either a few inches or a foot or so from the actual horn. So be informed when comparing the dB level of a horn.

Stebel [Nautilus or similar], or Wolo are good horns. I added additional horn on my 650. Haven't regretted it.

But if you REALLY want a horn that will make a driver pucker, then try Hornblasters (www.hornblasters.com) and get a locomotive horn...LOL. Though you may have a hard time mounting the compressor.

 

[edorfox]

I installed a set of Hella SuperTones. I attached them to the floating windscreen frame in such a position that when the screen rises, the horns actually block the wind from hitting the hands.
As far as effectiveness, the look on the wrongly merging trucker's face...priceless. (Windows rolled up and...drumroll...talking on a cell!)
As a side benefit, with the modulating headlight, modular microphoned helmet, and the fire engine red, siren looking horns, half the people think I'm some sort of "official".

Ed

 

[westgl]

I put on two Fiaam horns from Napa auto, this is my horn setup of choice, i put this on most of my motorcycles.

I have this setup on 4 of my motorcycles currently, and my car, my car had a little tiny sounding horn on it when i got it, but it is loud now.

A High tone and a Low Tone, they are 132db each, they are loud, I also put a relay and fuse coming straight off the battery, and using 14ga wire.

My brother in law was riding my scoot i was riding one of my goldwings, he honked it, it was loud I was 50ft in front of him doing 40 mph

 

[Noth]

RE: Horn.. I asked a guy at Twisted Throttle if I could mount a Steibel horn on my Burgman 650.. He indicated that it would be very tight as the steible takes up a lot more space than the stock horn.. I live within 40 miles of their location so have had them do some accesory installation on my 650 (Garmin Zumo).. and asked about it then.. I dropped it.. as it sounded pretty involved.. Is it that bad an install?

 

[zeco]

I put The Steibel on mine a few years ago and it went
just fine. I did put in a relay from the battery. I like it, but the picture above by endorfox looks interesting. Air type horns don't last forever.

 

[cliffyk]

I managed to squeeze a Stebel Nautilus into my '03 400, in the space just in front of the fuel tank and below the radiator. One would thing there would be someplace on a 650 that it would fit.

I have since removed the Stebel and replaced it with a pair of Wolo Maxi-sound electrics tucked in on the right side of the fuel tank:

They are just as loud as the Nautilus¹ but draw much less current; 18 A vs. 39 A at startup, and 10.5 A vs. 16 A continuous. They respond immediately when the button is pressed making a simple "honk-honk" to get someone's attention easier to accomplish.

In the last, the electrics also have a deeper tone than the Nautilus; at 400/480 Hz vs. the air horn's 530/680 Hz. A bit more commanding to my ear...

-----------------------------------------------------
¹ - The Nautilus the same horn as the Wolo Bad Boy, the Fiamm Ultimate Blast, the Screaming Banshee and a number of other rebranded and ridiculously priced over-hyped packages. I think Fiamm actually makes them.

 

[bikerdoc]

Tried to find some space on my AN650K7 exec, to add an extra horn similar style as the OEM, even pretty much opposite on the other frame down tube from the OEM horn placement, was a tight fit, but for whatever reason couldn't get the two to work in combination. Thinking was that the two combined were drawing too much current for the stock wiring without the use of a relay, or the wiring I used was not quite the right spec. Once I removed the added on horn at the time, the OEM one worked again. Never got back round to it.

 

[cliffyk]

Any aftermarket horn worth having will require that an auxillary relay be used. It's not a big deal to do so, almost trivial in fact...

 

[Buffalo]

The best reason to run a relay is that the horn is powered through the signal fuse. If that fuse blows your bike pretty much stops running. Running new wires and a relay takes a lot of load off that fuse.

 

[sectime]

How loud, in db, is the stock horn on a Burgman 650? I'm looking at replacements, but won't have the opportunity to actually hear them, so I have to rely on db measurements.

In my newbie experience, I would say slightly louder than a medium fart. It screams scooter.

 

[dsfraser]

In my newbie experience, I would say slightly louder than a medium fart. It screams scooter.

It does. Fortunately there is room behind the plastic to mount another horn on the right fork, with a length of strapping and a couple of hose clamps. Put a FIIAM horn there. Replace the OEM horn with another FIIAM horn, a hi/lo pair. To power the horns, run a wire from the main (with an inline fuse), hook it into a 12V relay with the OEM horn wires hooked up to trigger it, run the output to the horns and ground them to the frame. It all sits neatly above the radiator behind the front wheel.

Regards
Scott Fraser

 

[Buffalo]

It does. Fortunately there is room behind the plastic to mount another horn on the right fork, with a length of strapping and a couple of hose clamps. Put a FIIAM horn there. Replace the OEM horn with another FIIAM horn, a hi/lo pair. To power the horns, run a wire from the main (with an inline fuse), hook it into a 12V relay with the OEM horn wires hooked up to trigger it, run the output to the horns and ground them to the frame. It all sits neatly above the radiator behind the front wheel.

Regards
Scott Fraser

That is the setup I am using on my 650 except I ran my power wire from the battery and ran a ground wire back to the battery and not the frame. That takes the horn loading off the bikes wiring and ignition switch.

It does get people's attention.

 

[dsfraser]

That is the setup I am using on my 650 except I ran my power wire from the battery and ran a ground wire back to the battery and not the frame. That takes the horn loading off the bikes wiring and ignition switch.

It does get people's attention.

I found it easier to tap into the (15A) circuit for the 12v outlet. It's easy to reach in the fuse panel and the circuit is not generally used when the bike is running. Much easier than fishing a wire from the battery...

Regards
Scott Fraser

 

[cliffyk]

A 15 A feed really isn't enough for most aftermarket horns, the slow blow nature of automotive fuses will let them run, but will limit the supplied current causing a large voltage drop across the fuse--give them a 20 or 30 A fused "home run" to the battery and they will scream.

Here is the current draw from a set of Wolo Maxi-Sound electric horns:

A 25 A inrush for 22 ms, then 18 A peaks w/a 10 A average draw;

This is the current drawn by the electro-pneumatic Wolo Bad Boy (Nautilus, Ultra Blast, Banshee, etc.):

35.9 A tapering off in 100 ms to a 16 A continuous draw.

 

[Buffalo]

The other problem is that the power to that circuit flows through the ignition switch. The ignition switch is already carrying a lot of current and they have been known to burn out. I figure anything I can do to take a load off it is a good thing to do.

I didn't try to fish the wires. I just took the floor boards and front box off. That made running the wires a snap. Removing the body work is not difficult once you get past the fear of doing it.

 

[cliffyk]

Yup, ^^^^^, this too--110%...

 

[dgithens1]

the screaming banshee wasn't to difficult to install, I mounted mine on the forks, but hidden by the tupperware. Only took about an hour.