The stock 14r horn is a disgrace on such a flagship bike....has anyone installed a much louder horn in the stock bracket that you are happier with and has a louder distinctive sound?

If so, which unit is it?

I was struggling with this yesteday. I bought the flat pancake looking horn that said it was the loudest car horn at the local auto shop. It is definitely an improvement. It is no where near what it should be though. Now instead of sounding like a moped, I sound like a pissed off Civic.
I have had airhorns in all my bikes thus far. It helps! I am going to pull the rear apart and see if there is room for anything in there when I install my bag supports.

http://www.griotsgarage.com/product/hella+horns.do?sortby=ourPicks

I think they ound civicish as well.

* Last updated by: 06blackpearl on 10/1/2012 @ 6:56 PM *

I think they ound civicish as well.

I made the mistake of purchasing these a few years back load but sounds like a civic.

Snuffy

This one will get you noticed for sure!!!

Snuffy

I put the 300hz Hella in the stock location - just had to fab a bracket, copying the stock one with a longer mount tab for the horn end and a different bend.
I'll try to remember to take a picture of it and post here for anyone interested.

As for sound, it's louder than the weak stock one. I plan at some point to add the 2nd 500hz and relay somewhere in the fairing.

The problem with these larger ones, is there is such a tight clearance up front. If you slam the front brake and have the front end dive down, you will crush your fender with the bigger ones. Maybe, when I have luggage on, I will mount one on the bike side of the luggage...

Yup, true dat!
What I did was take off the hideous red grill then bend the bracket so that it sits almost where the stock one did and has close to the same clearance in relation to both the fender and the rad. I spent an afternoon screwing around with several iterations of bracket before I got it to where I was comfortable. So far, plenty of hard braking, although forks never fully compressed, but nothing touching.

If you get a Stebel Nautilus, you can split the compressor (cylinder) from the plastic horn, mount the compressor under the left (or right) side fairing, use Murph's wiring harness so it runs off your OEM horn button (but draws power direct from the battery), and mount the plastic horn to the OEM wishbone where the dinkly little OEM horn is bolted.

To mount the horn part, bend a piece of aluminum to about 100 degrees (or maybe more) which is a bit more than a ninety degree (square) angle. Bolt one side to the part of the plastic horn that used to fit around the compressor, and the other to the OEM wishbone bracket, so that the horn openings face forward and slightly down - so water can run out that splashes in... not a big problem anyway.

Run a 5/16" hose from the plastic horn part (you need to buy a 5/16" barbed 90 degree elbow adapter and some plastic epoxy to put in the hole in the plastic horn which the compressor elbow used to fit into. On the compressor side, slide the hose over the compressor elbow, and use a small clamp to hold it.

If anyone needs pictures I can probably dig up some and post.

Trust me, they'll hear this baby when you thumb the horn button.

P.S. Using Murph's harness, you have to splice extensions to the compressor leads to reach the left side if you put it over there. And replace his fuse with a 35A fuse (it comes with a 20A fuse and trust me, you can pop it).

I mounted a Hella 300 Hz horn, with it's included bracket, onto the existing bolt hole for the OEM wishbone.

I got the one horn to fit, but just barely, without it bending anything on a hard stop front end compression.

I've had it a few months now, and I'm pretty unhappy with it. It's sound fine in the driveway. Good wife says she can hear it inside the house when I "request" a garage door opening.

But, on the freeway? Forget it, I can barely hear it over all the rest of the noise out there.

I like Privateer's idea very much. I thought someone on this forum had warned us off of attempting to take a Stebel apart before (claimed that it would "break" the horn). So, this is the first time I read that someone has successfully decoupled the compressor from the sounding unit. That's great! I want one of those!

I also read pros/ cons of Stebel build quality, that it would not take much abuse (and fail too soon because they "break apart" from too much vibration). But, I do not have any data about that issue. Mebbe de-coupling the compressor from the horn bell solves that (non-)issue?

The compressor is held in the plastic adapter by a single tang. It is obvious what that is when you look at the assembly. Taking a mid-size standard blade screw driver, you can disengage the tang and slide the compressor out.

It might have some glue overflow on it, but you can still get it out. Mine came out easy as pie.

When you mount the compressor on the left side, there is usually a subframe bolt or a heatshield bolt you can attach a length of aluminum flat rod (plate) by drilling a hole the size of the bolt you want to use, and then a hole at the end large enough to accept the T-bolt supplied with the compressor.

Just be sure to red or surface-insensitive blue loctite the nut on the T-bolt, you don't want the compressor bouncing around inside your fairing. LOL.

Mine has gone all summer including a ride to NW Arkansas and back from Hagerstown, MD, and a bunch of places like West Point NY, and it continues to work just fine. Coming home from Arkansas I got in a torrential thunderstorm which was so bad it made tractor-trailers pull off the road, and the horn continued to work just fine.

Here is how I mounted mine. It attaches to a subframe / fairing support member.

The tube you see coming out of the bottom right going upwards to the right, is the air intake, and I glued the foam ball from a microphone set onto the end of it and that is up behind the heat shield just under the fairing.

* Last updated by: privateer on 10/2/2012 @ 1:25 PM *

privateer - do you install that on 2012 ZX-14? I'm thinking to get a louder horn as well...

Thanks, Privateer!

That was very kind of you to take the time to post the example...

Bob