Horn: Low or High?

[Paul Mihalka]

I plan to install one Fiamm Blaster horn on my Yamaha scooter. Available in low or high tone. Which one might be better to wake up the texter next to me?

[g_frey]

The one that gets my attention is the deep tone from the diesel truck. That may have something to do with bad instances in the past though.

[johnlt]

If you have space, put both on for a dual-tone.

[tallman]

Paul,

 

I swapped the OEM Spanish scooter meep meep on the GT for the high tone FIAMM.

 

It is much louder than what it replaced.

 

I can hear it at 80+ w/earplugs and music playing.

 

Seems to work fine wrt cages.

[Peter Parts]

Horn sound level ratings are not good guides to effectiveness. Ears are better.

 

Dual horns "beat" and that is important horn quality.

 

True air-compressor horns best vibrator horns a lot and are directional (more towards cars, less towards you). Often on sale.

 

Ben

[Fubar]

I used the low on mine (shoulda used both).

My thought was that the lower tone is less likely to be "watered down" by other sounds and will get through closed windows and sheet metal better. Plus, I think it makes the brain assume a larger vehicle is involved.

My 2¢

[Selden]

The first thing I did after buying a Honda Fit was to install a small air horn, a Wolo Bad Boy, which seems to be functionally identical to the Nautilus, and produces 2 tones. I remember one time on a 4-lane highway watching a woman in a minivan start to change (without signaling, of course) into our lane while she was alongside. My wife hit the horn, and the other driver threw up her hands and swerved back into her own lane. There must be somewhere on a scooter where you can mount one of these. Because of the high current draw of the air motor, a relay is essential. DAMHIK.

[na1g]

Ben stated "Dual horns beat."

 

True. With two horns, say 400 Hertz (cycles per second) and 600 Hertz, you also get the sum and difference of the two tones:

1,000 and 200 Hertz. Not more volume but a more complex, more noticeable sound overall. In fact, some combinations can be downright irritating which is also good.

 

In other words, two horns are better than one.

 

pete

[Paul Mihalka]

"In other words, two horns are better than one."

Yup, I know that. But in my scooter the battery is in the rear behind the tail light, getting a hot wire through all the tupperware to the front horn placement is a pain, space is limited, so I don't want to hassle with a relay.

Thank you for the opinions answering my question, which is for a single horn.

 

[Guest Kakugo]

My opinion is low pitch horn work better.

People unconsciously associate low pitch horns to large vehicles (lorries, big sedans etc) while they associate high pitch horns to small vehicles (motorcycles, subcompact cars etc). At the same unconscious level people tend to be much more careful when they feel a large vehicle is coming.

I fitted a dual horn lifted from a 5-series sedan to my RT. Not much louder than the OE pancake but people tend to pay much more attention to it because, well, they think a big, heavy sedan is coming.

[dirtrider]

Morning Paul

 

I know you are only asking about hi or low horn to use. Just a bit to help you decide.

 

I'm not much use to you on choosing a motorcycle horn as personally I seldom if ever use the darn things. (can't remember the last time I have used a car or motorcycle horn in traffic)

 

In most cases it is easier (& much quicker) to just ride/drive around potential problems than take the time to sound a horn.

 

A few things to keep in mind on horn though:

 

As a general rule low frequencies travel further with the same amount of horn energy than higher frequencies.

 

Just loud (especially real loud) is not much use in traffic patterns as too loud & too startling will not allow the other driver to discern direction. You want just enough noise to alert the other driver but you also NEED them to know where (what direction) the noise is coming from.

 

You don't want to be on a drivers R/H side & have then look over their left hand shoulder when you toot your honker.

 

Or worse yet - dart/swerve right when they hear the noise from the left side because they have their drivers window open a bit (very common occurrence).

 

To me horn directional awareness is much more important than the horn's loudness.

 

[johnlt]

Low frequencies arn't nearly as directional as higher frequencies. That's why it isn't important where your put your sub-woofer in a room because you really can't tell anyway.

[dirtrider]

Morning John

 

Good point.

 

[mikeR1100R]

I put a low tone Wolo on Georgi's Ninja. It makes the old Rotweiler howl!

[GRB60]

I agree with Dirtrider. I don't use the horn. Better and easier to avoid them than to startle them and cause them to do something you can't react to.

[Paul Mihalka]

I agree with Dirtrider. I don't use the horn. Better and easier to avoid them than to startle them and cause them to do something you can't react to.

I fully agree, but if I have a horn on the bike, it might as well do it's job.

[Quinn]

If I have time to find and blow the horn, I have time to compensate and turn the situation into a non-issue. I try to not use it as a teaching tool or an expression of my ire.

 

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