Repairers to horn (2017)

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Hi been a time from last posting, bike went great last summer, handles well with Avon road rider tyres fitted. Now in the garage trying to fix the oil leaks, 2on cylinder head, one on primary chain case. 1oncrank case breather. To get bike through m o t last year I fitted a cheap horn of eBay. Bright red in colour it does not look the part, I have the (clear hooters type horn) that came with the bike. Horn did work ,but was full of water so I took it a part to clean and dry. Re assembled and it does not work. Any advice on what to look for would be great. John. Norfolk. Uk
 
Wow, great link. I replaced my lucas horn with some generic horn that is pretty weak sounding, but none the less works. The good thing is that I kept the lucas horn in my parts bin somewhere, so I see it being resurected and reinstalled somewhere in the near future.. Thanks for that link.
 
They sell horns?! I have a vague memory of dealing with the horn, when I was young and didn't want to take more then the fender off to access it. Needle nose pliers come to mind, which may or may not have helped. I think my best tool at that time was my youth and naivity. Still have the original horn. The only time I use it is in tunnels or underpasses, just for fun.
 
The stock horn is worse than an embarrassment. It is heavy, tends to break the mounting bracket, not very loud, and unreliable.
To make matters worse, they are very difficult to remove or install.
I have removed mine several times, played with the tuning bolt to get it working properly, reinstalled it, only to have tone and volume change, or stop working, in very short order. I have also opened them up and filed contacts, etc, with little success.
Not worth the hassle, IMHO. Unless you are into concours.
Go to your nearest salvage yard (swap meets are also a great place) and get a light loud reliable horn off a Japanese bike. Installed, nobody is going to notice that you have gone to the dark side.

If you want a serious solution, you need to use a high amperage horn (or two), and a solenoid controlled from the original horn switch.


Stephen Hill
 
+1 on that. I fitted pair of horns from a Honda NTV 650. neatly tucked away on the top damper bolts, fed from a relay they are well loud
 
gripper said:
+1 on that. I fitted pair of horns from a Honda NTV 650. neatly tucked away on the top damper bolts, fed from a relay they are well loud

Do you have a pic? I have a Fiamm horn that I like, but I dont like the placement of and I have been wrestling with what to do with it the last couple of days.
 
I think you know how this goes already. Take the horn apart again. See why it is not bleating. Fix the problem. Slowly tighten the bolts that now hold it together until it quits bleating. Wiggle stuff around until it works again. Pretty soon you have spent a couple hours getting it working right. Reinstall it.

The horn can not face entirely down. It fouls the crossbar for the swingarm, but the closer you get, the less water it collects.

Greg
 
The inevitable happened and my horn quit. I certainly hope that the Norton engineer who put the horn there was kicked in the nuts at least once a day for the rest of his career. Now to get at the thing...I assume it is accessible by removing the battery or is there some other disassembly required? Any pointers would be appreciated.
 
Thanks for the info - ordered one up and mounted it on the rear footpeg as I have no desire to ever go through another archeological excavation to remove the horn again. Doesn't interfere with the kick start or passenger footpeg access.
Repairers to horn (2017)
 
keep in mind a lot of horns are designed to work in concert with their supplied mounting brackets. Changing brackets or using a solid mount point will affect the horn sound output and or tone. I have used run of the mill automotive store horns (Fiamm Freeway Blaster for example) on several bikes and they work great. Run about $15. Put one on the Commando in the stock location but used the included mounting bracket. Works fantastic...as loud and clear as any car horn.
 
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