Stebel TM-80 Magnum Horn Install - 6th gen

[geezerider]

This placement WILL impact the front fender under hard braking. Do NOT try this! I am going back to the pondering and will, hopefully, find a better place for this horn. There simply isn't much room in a 6th gen ABS bike...

Honda stuck a rather anemic horn in my beloved '05 VFR. Making things worse, they took up all the space I'd hoped to use for installing a Stebel Nautilus with various ABS thingies. But, Stebel sells another great horn, this one is not pneumatic, therefore it can fit in smaller spaces.

I surfed around and found the Stefel TM80 Magnum series. This is a high-low pair of horns each emitting 136 db, or 139 as a pair. That is the same rating as the Nautilus.


I had three goals:
1. I didn't want the sound rattling around inside a fairing
2. I didn't want to have to fiddle with too much plastic
3. I didn't want to cut into the bike's wiring harness

Having been in the IT business for over 30 years, I've become a strong adherant to the K-I-S-S method of life. So I sat and pondered before I started unbolting.

Ultimately this big hole looked most promising.


Oh yeah, this looks like it'll work!


OK, time to begin. After much thought and deliberation, plus the judicious use of small fuses I determined the amp pull of the horn. Acutally, this was planned as I hooked the horn up to a makeshift wiring jig and connected it to the battery with a 3 amp inline fuse. It held just fine. When I added the second horn in series the fuse blew. That gave me the confidence to proceed without (<-edit) using a relay. This horn pulls less than 3 amps!

Poking around inside I found the perfect spot to mount the horn bracket. Stebel was good enough to provide two with each horn. Good for me because I guessed wrong on the first bend. I bent the second one correctly on my workbench vise and use the brake hose clamp bolt to hold it up. ->WARNING - See addendum to this article concerning fender clearance <-


Here is the test fit.


Looks good where it is, so I'll work on the wiring.

I really wanted to keep my stock POS horn also as noise is noise and the harmonic couldn't hurt. So I decided to take the power straight off the stock horn connecter.


Actually that connector is the ground. The power lead turned out the be on top, but you get the idea.

I crimped a spade connector on a wire and brought it out a wire nut. From this nut I ran the power to both horns. Stock gauge wiring proved capable of pulling both horns.


Heat shrink this to keep it from going anywhere...


This nut splits the power from the horn button to both horns.

From this point I simply crimped on female connectors and pluged up the power to both horns. I grounded the Stebel to the strap to keep from having to run a common ground.

Clean up the wiring thusly...


Here's the final mount. I painted part of the horn case black:


That's all there is to it! It took about an hour of work and an hour or two pondering and playing "what if."

Addendum:
Several people noted that there was a possible clearance problem. It isn't just possible, there is. In the original fitment it would contact the fender at almost (70%?) full compression. So I reworked my hanging bracket and moved the horn as far back and up as is possible.

It will STILL contact at 80-85% (guess) full compression. This seems OK for me so far since I'm too old to be attacking the twisties like in my impetuous youth. Therefore, BE WARNED.

Geeze

[Tori]

So how satisfied are you with the sound ? I presume you were looking for a major increase in sound. Do you happen to know the decibel level on the stock horn ?

[geezerider]

IMO, sound is great. I have no meter to gauge it by.