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Horn suggestion

NCX19

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Wanted a much better horn than stock, and having had a Wolo Bad Boy installed on previous bikes was headed in that direction. Realized it was going to look kind of chunky in the OEM location, and decided to expand my research.

Settled on a pair of Hella motorcycle horns. pasted link doesn't work.?? manually goto - myhellalights.com S70 motorcycle horns

They draw 16w (which at 14.7v bike running) is about 1 A. Well within the horn button's limit, and no need to use a relay to switch a dedicated fused lead off the battery.

Sound - nice. Way louder than stock (probably x4 minimum), and the dual tone is also much more attention getting than the meep tone of the OEM.
Comparison - last bike I added a Wolo to, I forgot about it. One day I needed to hit the horn and scared myself it was so loud. OK, so these aren't that loud, but respectable. Price was great.

Pic Dropbox - horns - 1.jpg - Simplify your life

Wiring was so easy. Used spade lugs and made up jumper leads between the horns and a tail with a male lead off one of the horns. The stock wiring is female spade connectors onto the horn. So made up the horns' wiring as an assembly, bolted them with a shared 1/4-20, and plugged the leads into the OEM connectors. 5 Min job once I wired em as a kit on the bench.

so - spring has arrived and im checking everything out ..... no horns. !!! after poking around, I tried backing off the pitch screw - and viola.
Re-tuned both and tightened lock nut. Go figure both horns siezed??? over winter. All good.
 
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NCX19 - I just installed a pair of Hella Horns after reading this post, and they are great! Thank you for the suggestion.

They are not super loud, in my opinion maybe only ~2x louder than stock, but I think that the two-tone sound is much more attention-grabbing. I followed your suggestion and crimped together a custom spade connector split wiring harness to hook them up.

I was able to mount them in a spot where they are far enough away from the engine that they will hopefully not get too hot, and high enough up that I can still remove the bottom fairing without first removing the horns. I may need to disconnect the wires to refill the coolant, though.

Original (left) vs. Hella (right):

IMG_1791.jpg IMG_1797.jpg

Making custom wiring:

IMG_1795.jpg IMG_1796.jpg

Close up of mounting and wiring:

IMG_1799.jpg IMG_1804.jpg IMG_1801.jpg
 
NCX19 - I just installed a pair of Hella Horns after reading this post, and they are great! Thank you for the suggestion.

They are not super loud, in my opinion maybe only ~2x louder than stock, but I think that the two-tone sound is much more attention-grabbing. I followed your suggestion and crimped together a custom spade connector split wiring harness to hook them up.

I was able to mount them in a spot where they are far enough away from the engine that they will hopefully not get too hot, and high enough up that I can still remove the bottom fairing without first removing the horns. I may need to disconnect the wires to refill the coolant, though.

Original (left) vs. Hella (right):

View attachment 42070 View attachment 42071

Making custom wiring:

View attachment 42072 View attachment 42073

Close up of mounting and wiring:

View attachment 42074 View attachment 42077 View attachment 42076
Following the same route here. I look at your pics and cannot find an angle where I can see clearly how you mounted the twin horns. Are you using the OEM horn bracket? Did you changed something on this OEM bracket? Or made a custom one?
 
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Anyone know how many amps you can pull thru the stock horn circuit wiring without frying something?
 
Anyone know how many amps you can pull thru the stock horn circuit wiring without frying something?

The Hella Horns come with a small bracket attached to each horn. so with the OEM bracket + the kit brackets you can get both mounted. I will post a close-up pic later today.
 
Anyone know how many amps you can pull thru the stock horn circuit wiring without frying something?

Fuse #5 is ILLUMI/STOP/HORN, 7.5 amps. Looks like this runs the horn, rear (red) running light, the brake light (via the two brake switches), the front two amber running lights, and possibly the turn signals, depending on whether or not you change out the flasher relay. Accounting for 20% overhead, you have about 6 amps to work with.

I have LED running lights which take close to nil watts, so I'm comfortable with the horn drawing up to 3 amps (~36 watts) without putting in a relay. More than that and I'd suggest a new circuit off of the battery and a relay, or if you want to hold the horn down for extended (30s+) time durations :).
 
Anyone know how many amps you can pull thru the stock horn circuit wiring without frying something?
I know the stebel horn without a relay will blow the fuse....dont ask me how I know this....hehehe. The fuse is 7.5 amp...any horn which pulls more than that without a relay will blow the fuse.
 
I have a Stebel on my NC and have not blown a fuse. 40,000+ miles of use. If you lay on the horn for an extended blast it is much more likely to blow. Short blast does not give the fuse time to heat up and melt link. If I did blow a fuse I think the wiring would support a step up in fuse size.

On my Versys 300X I put a Denali Sound Bomb Mini. Much smaller so easy to install and less amp draw so plug and play. It is also smaller so easier to mount. It is a good compromise. Not as loud as Stebil but much louder than stock.
 
Well, I installed the twin Hella horns and took dB measures before and after. I was cautious to have my iPhone at the same location, orientation and in the exact same environment to take measures. I used 2 different apps to do this and 3 times for each horn configuration. This is not precise as some dedicated dB measuring device but I only wanted relative numbers to compare. The verdict is not brilliant; 1 app gave me the exact same numbers for the twin Hella vs OEM. The other app gave me a 1.5% decrease in sound level. Maybe the two-tone sound of the Hellas will draw more attention but clearly, this is not what I was expecting.
 
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Well, I installed the twin Hella horns and took dB measures before and after. I was cautious to have my iPhone at the same location, orientation and in the exact same environment to take measures. I used 2 different apps to do this and 3 times for each horn configuration. This is not precise as some dedicated dB measuring device but I only wanted relative numbers to compare. The verdict is not brilliant; 1 app gave me the exact same numbers for the twin Hella vs OEM. The other app gave me a 1.5% decrease in sound level. Maybe the two-tone sound of the Hellas will draw more attention but clearly, this is not what I was expecting.
Just curious, but at what distance did you measure the volume.

If I recall correctly the standard is 1 meter from the sound source for most volume measurements but apparently not for motorcycle horns volume :(

I notice that some of the horns on Amazon claim a specific decibel rating, but at a very short distance from the source. Other horns don't give any distance from source for their claimed decibel level. It would certainly be helpful if they all used the same standard.
 
Just curious, but at what distance did you measure the volume.

If I recall correctly the standard is 1 meter from the sound source for most volume measurements but apparently not for motorcycle horns volume :(

I notice that some of the horns on Amazon claim a specific decibel rating, but at a very short distance from the source. Other horns don't give any distance from source for their claimed decibel level. It would certainly be helpful if they all used the same standard.
I took all measures at about 1 meter but not directly in front as I was performing the work in my shed. I did the very same for both horn configurations. To me, only relative numbers were important as different apps have different dB numbers for the same noise. App A showed the exact amount of decibels for both horn configurations while App B showed a slight difference; the OEM horn was very slightly louder...
 
I wanted plug and play and louder than stock (didnt want to run more electrical wires for a relay). I got this: it is much louder than stock and is truly plug and play.

I've had the Freeway Blaster on previous bikes. Very nice horn, very loud. I wanted something more attention-getting than loud for the NC, since I'm primarily riding it in local traffic rather than highways.
 
Well I had the occasion to use my horn today while on a 4 lane rural highway. Running along at about 55mph when a Dodge Caravan decided he wanted my lane. He was polite enough to use his turn signal. I was in the left lane, he was in the right. I was in alignment with his rear wheel well when I saw the front turn signal start to flash and he slowly started to move into my lane, long "tweet" of the factory horn and he pulled back into his lane, I passed with a polite wave.

Very likely I had moved into his blind spot. No harm, no foul. I'm sure appreciate the friendly wave instead of the middle finger. I know I appreciated the heads up from the turn signal.

The low volume of the factory horn, one of those things that is always on my "to do list" will be moved up the priority ladder to top of the heap. Just need to decide which horn to buy. Really looking for a simple plug and play, or close to a plug and play.

Looking at the "Denali Sound Bomb MINI"

YouTube -->
 
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