Screaming Banshee Wannabe Air Horn & Headlight Flash Mod


sti491

Member
So, here I am enjoying riding my bike a lot, but now lamenting that my mod phase is nearly over, thinking about other less exciting projects, like mowing the lawn... :-(

Ah ha! The idea of upgrading my horn pops into my head. I actually never use my horn. The only times I remember is when I hit the button by accident parking the bike (usually in a public place announcing my arrival unceremoniously). I do rev my loud exhaust at many a soccer mom texting, putting eyeshadow on, while slapping the kid in back of the van and creeping into my path.... and plenty of male idiot cagers too. My exhaust does a decent job of getting their attention. A real horn would be a faster response though.

I did some research and settled on an air type horn. I found this product, that flashes your headlight as you press the horn button, which I thought was a cool safety feature. https://screaming-banshee.com/banshee-horn

The problem is that thing is EXPENSIVE!... and it did not get stellar reviews for longevity or operation. It did place the seed of adding a headlight high beam flasher relay to my horn circut though, as well as an additional relay for the heavier 18 amp draw of the Airhorn I chose: the Stebel 11690019 - Nautilus Compact Mini Air Horn. $27 from Amazon.

If you listen to Utube videos, while these air horns claim to be twice or nearly twice as loud as the OEM one, they are interesting how they sound and how the volume compares. I think it sounds like what I imagine a Ferrari horn sounds like; annoyingly loud dual air horn tone that sounds pretty nice. All I need is a Prancing Horse decal on the Fizzer now. The Horn is Italian, of course. And, it's 139dB. That means it won't completely shatter you eardrums in the garage if you just beep it. It might if you held down that horn button. Where it really shines is distance comparisons to the OEM horn. It's louder close up. It is WAY louder far away.

I though I read that it weighed 1lb. It feels more than that when you unpackage it. However, when you remove the pathetic OEM littler beeper, that sucker is heavy for it's size. So one downside is you gain a small amount of weight, but not much. I also painted it and the relay all flat black before the install.

The first challenge is deciding where you want to mount the little beast. It is small for an air horn, but considerably larger than the stock horn. People mount them under fairings, on the side of their V-Twins, in all kinds of places. I chose the stock horn location, which was a challenge. It fits, but oh so just barely. And, it is one huge PIA to secure it there, bolt it in and wire it without taking all the front fairings off. It can be done: persistence beats resistance, but just barely as it was 90 degrees and very humid in my NC shop today.

The relay wiring was straight forward. I located under the seat where it is dry. I used an extra Battery Tender fuse holder I already had, and I think it was 14 or 16 ga wire I had lying around. The horn draws 18 amps and the headlight about 3. I used a 15 amp fuse which is a bit undersized, but it is only a momentary circut honking the horn. I used a jumper hot lead from the horn relay to my LED high beam. I was going to use an adjustable 2-pole flash relay on the headlight, so when you hold the horn button down it would flash the high beam automatically. However when I tested it without the flasher, I realized I don't think I'll be holding that horn button down much. So I did not add the high beam flasher. I may later, but doubt it.

I'm very pleased with this safety mod. Highly recommend, as I slump back into the "I am running out of mods blues mode"!

https://vimeo.com/user87393706/review/280336206/ea29549378
 

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