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VFR800 & Stebel Nautilus Air Horn


Guest carla

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I did this mod to my ’99 VFR. Read a few posts and many said that the heat from the exhaust pipes would melt the horn. I can report taht after one year, riding in summer, iddling a lot in traffic, it still works perfectly, and no sign of heat stress.

I bought the Stebel Nautilus with a wiring kit on eBay from “onlineautoparts”, $56 delivered.

Only place that it fits, without modifying any of the fairing, is down low. Has the advantage that the sound has a clear path out through the front of the fairing.

There is an unused engine mount just in the right place. It is around 9.5mm, so I ran a 10mm drill through it to bore it out. Had to unbolt the radiator so that I could move it slightly aside to get at the hole and a socket onto the bolt.

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Went to Bunnings and bought a small length of aluminium bar and made up a bracket. Had to put a slight bend it in to curve it in slightly. Made the bracket slightly longer, drilled a small hole and used it to tie the cables in place at the bottom of the bracket.

10mm bolt and lock washer to the engine mount, and used the Nautilus bolt and lock washer to hold it on the bracket – rock solid.

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The end of the trumpets look close to the headers, but I can put my fingers between the plastic trumpet and the header, it is no closer than the inside plastic fairing cowl to the headers. The main body of the Nautilus is well away from the headers, and the whole unit will get a good air flow past it.

The wiring kit came with the cables in a black sleeve. Perfect length, ran the cables up to the frame, inside the frame to the stearing head, across in front of the steering head and out on the left hand side by the radiator.

I was able to unplug the wires to the OEM horn, pull them up and re-route them to the same location, you can see the blue connectors I used to bridge to the cables for the relay.

Mounted the relay using the ignition coil (plenty of room inside the fairing and should stay dry) and ran the relay earth back inside the frame and used one of the brake line bracket bolts, just next to the steering head to earth it to the frame.

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Wiring kit also came with a n inline fuse for the 12v supply to the relay. Ran that back directly onto the battery. Cable length put it just above the rear cylinder head, where it gets hidden by the front edge of the seat when it is in place.

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Sound. Nice and loud, don’t use the horn often, but when I do I like them to take notice. They will see a truck but not a bike, same with a horn, they just won’t hear a bike horn.

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where you mounted the relay, is where I have my Stebel Magnum horns located, one on each side. No need to modify fairing, only needed to trim the horns slightly. 4 years and no probs, 130db of horniness :)

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  • 2 weeks later...

Some had noted when these compact Nautilus airhorns from Stebel first came out that these horns are sensitive to how they need to be mounted perfectly vertical, or the air pump burns out, leading to many failures even when very new. Did Stebel already solve this problem, if there was really a problem?

It's a mod I seriously considered, but I pushed off on it when bad news started to come in on how some of these were prematurely failing out there in surprising numbers.

Beck

95 VFR

Edited by Beck
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  • Member Contributer

It's still recommended that the compressor be mounted as close to vertical as possible. Fortunately, with a bit of work, the trumpets can be seperated from the compressor and mounted remotely.

-Jake

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.... Fortunately, with a bit of work, the trumpets can be seperated from the compressor and mounted remotely.

-Jake

That's what I did. Not too difficult really, and the compressor is more protected

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.... Fortunately, with a bit of work, the trumpets can be seperated from the compressor and mounted remotely.

-Jake

That's what I did. Not too difficult really, and the compressor is more protected

Same here. Mounted the compressor on the left side vertically so it is covered by the side fairing and mounted the trumpets under the front cowling pointed down for drainage. Just ran an air line from the compressor to the trumpets and nothing but sweet, heart wrenching, music ever time some cager tries something stupid. I keep forgetting how loud it is until I have to use it again. :musik20:

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  • 6 months later...

My girlfriend ended up buying an Ear Cannon from Aerostich for $40 for her 2000 VFR. It came in a Stebel box though, so I guess they are the same thing. Supposed to be 139 db.

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There is a kit out now. I am NOT affiliated with the product but it looks interesting to me.

http://screaming-banshee.com/

It looks like a great product and was funded through Kickstarter.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/153591688/banshee-horn-safety-system-for-motorcycles-cars-an?ref=category

Edited by Skimball
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  • 1 year later...

I just fitted a stebel to my 99.

I spent 2 hours pulling panels off, bending up various brackets to try and get it to fit....

So in the end I just zip tied it to the frame just above the radiator on the LHS of the bike. Snug as, and rock solid.

*DISCLAMER* I have many years of experience doing half dodgy work with zip ties. YMMV.

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  • 5 months later...

Here is how i did it.

Removed left fairing. I had space there (between the blinker and radiator) - if you have ABS that's where probably front modulator is, but i'm not sure.

That's how it was before.

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I was using these zync covered plates size was 8cmx8cm (little bit more than 3") and 2mm thick (~1/12"). Drilled new/larger holes. Decided to use them doubled, because they are not so strong alone.

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Cut off ends of one plate and made this angle bracket. That was the hardest part as i don't have much tools here.

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Then started the assembly - attached the angle to horn compressor.

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Attached large double plate.

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Then mounted it.

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Used one of the screws to mount relay.

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As i had crimping tool and connectors, attaching wires was pretty easy. 85/86 from relay went to original horn wires - just crimped on male connectors and plugged in. +12V used from 12V socekt wiring, as that had wires about the same gauge. Replaced 10A fuse with 25A (was in set with horn).

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Ground for horn compressor (black wire with blue connector under the tank).

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And as bonus while i was there modded blue connector's ground as forum advices ;)

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Was busy almost all day. I was not in a hurry and i was changing oil and replacing air filter as well. Checked how the horn works 2 times just for a split second, because it is 5 story building with people in it ;). Did not want them to run for their lives :D.

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  • 5 years later...
  • Member Contributer

  Motorcycle horns... in good working order... have a distinctive sound
all there own... when people here that little beeep eep... they have
been trained over the years to think motorcycle... but if you replace
the beeep eep with a car... truck or train horn... guess what???
confused people will charge right into your path thinking a car... truck
or train has blown it's horn for them to get out their way... It's only
natural for cagers to equate sounds to the first thing that pops into
their heads in a panic situation...

 

You're safest with meep meep...

 

I talked to BMW rider who mounted air horns pirated from Southern Pacific Diesel
Locomotive... They sounded great but he was having second thoughts... it seems
cagers were running into his bike in a panic trying to get away from the train
they could not see...

 

We know that cagers are unpredictable and that blasting them with
125db non standard motorcycle horn is enough to send their thought
process into over load... that's a destabilizing act of our own creation...

 

Nathom Air Chimes off a Locomotive...

NathamAirChime.JPG

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Thank you for all these suggestion. I have a high-low pair from Aerostich which, being the procrastinator I am, have not been installed. Now I am inspired to get this done as soon as the glaciers depart this part of the country.

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