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Question on R1200RT horn - suggestions?

RT Horn Conversion & Usage

On my 2008 RT, I had the small and not-loud pancake horn. I bought the parts and installed the two BMW OEM horns over a year ago. Once I figured out where everything was located, installation was not extremely complex, but did require two focused people. I didn't remove the headlight/nacelle pieces.

I think I have used the horns about four times in 16,000 miles...twice with women drivers who had cellphones to their left ears as they decided to move left into my lane on Interstates, once with a person wearing headphones who stepped off a curb directly into my path, and once with a couple of deer considering crossing the Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina (they didn't). That said, I frequently have my left thumb on the horn switch in traffic situations. I do try to look down the road a bit, and attempt to foresee problems before they become difficult, so I don't press that button very often.
 
Rather then start another thread, thought I would piggy back off of your post cowboyatheart.

Installed the Wolo Bad Boy dual tone horn model 419 (same as Stebel) today on my 2011 R1200RT. Can you say a$$ pain. Made a couple runs to the local automotive store to get wire, casing for inline fuse, some tools, and various odds and ends. Took me most of the day. Removed the chintzy factory disk horn and installed the Wolo in same location. Fabricated all the wire connections and hooked it up.

Will check out the horn probably some time next week. Live in condo, so didn't want to blast the horn and upset the locals. Did blip it once for functionality check. It worked but difficult to get a sense of how it really works out on the open interstate. Used 14 guage wire and made every effort to make it look like a professional installation. Takes time to do it right. Will have more input next week after I take it out on the open super highway.:beer
 
OK. So yesterday I installed the Hyper-Lite LED front and back. Today I installed the Bad Boy dual horn. After completing and buttoning everything back up, I had two standard sized T27 torx screws remaining.

For the life of me, I can't figure out where the two screws came from. :scratch
 
OK. So yesterday I installed the Hyper-Lite LED front and back. Today I installed the Bad Boy dual horn. After completing and buttoning everything back up, I had two standard sized T27 torx screws remaining.

For the life of me, I can't figure out where the two screws came from. :scratch

T27s are used to secure the bottom of the inner body fairing to the attachment points in front of the cylinder heads. Could that be it?
 
T27s are used to secure the bottom of the inner body fairing to the attachment points in front of the cylinder heads. Could that be it?

Appreciate your suggestion but those are covered. Currently I'm thinking it may be from the glove compartment on the front right side. I have have missed two screws on the right side of the glove compartment by the hinges. Means I'll have to remove the right panel to take a look this weekend. :dunno
 
Had the torx screw head with plastic grommet between the grounding wire and the frame. Thought the torx screw connected to the frame would connect the ground. Not. Rewired the horn grounding wire directly touching the frame. Problem solved. Wolo Bad Boy mode 419 is suppose to be the same as Stebel. The horn is loud but not as loud as I had expected. All the ads would have you believe it is as loud as a freight train or a mack truck. Not even close. Definitely louder then the chintzy factory disc horn but that's not saying much. Connected to the same location as the stock horn with brass 90 degree angle bracket. Brass ideal for eliminating any oxidation problems. Wired with 14 gauge wire with inline 20 amp fuse. Very please with nip & tuck that closely resembles factory stock installation. :dance
 

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Just an update to this post, I did the OEM upgrade last night and am completely thrilled with the tone and loudness of the horn now as compared to the factory pancake that came on my 07 RT. The job was what I consider to be very easy and took just a little over 2 hours to complete. While I had the mirrors off, I added the aftermarket tethers that Atomicman recommended in another post which were very simple to install and very inexpensive http://http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Mirror-Tether-Set-05-09-BMW-R1200RT-FREE-SHIPPING-_W0QQcmdZViewItemQQhashZitem4cf528fb7fQQitemZ330530618239QQptZMotorcyclesQ5fPartsQ5fAccessories

Just to clear up some confusion from earlier in this post, I replaced the pancake factory horn with the low pitch horn listed in the parts list provided by Semper-Fi and added the high pitch horn to the mount pictured in his instructions. Semper-Fi mentioned that he added only the one horn while not replacing the stock horn. I'm not sure if he already had the low pitch horn installed which then would only require installing the high pitch horn to complete the upgrade but if you only add the high pitch horn and leave the pancake, you will not get the full sound effect which now sounds like a typical car horn and is very loud.

The price of the parts has increased significantly from the list provided at the beginning of this post. They are as follows;

low pitch horn - $60.13
high pitch horn - $49.51
cage nut - $1.12
ISA screw - $1.80

I was able to find an aftermarket (same part number) low pitch horn for $26.25 at http://www.rmeuropean.com/ although they are showing it as "out of stock" currently. The aftermarket horn fit perfectly and sounds great.

As I said and as others have stated, the sound and volume of the horn after this upgrade doesn't even compare to the original pancake horn. All OEM, no cutting of wires and completely sufficient! :usa

Tom
2007 R12RT
 
I too installed the OEM upgrades. Very simple procedure which only required removal of the left panel. Only took 30 minutes to install both horns. Wow, what a difference.
 
I think I have a lead on cutting the price of the factory dual horn upgrade significantly. I will test it and report back.
 
I removed the stocker, and put two Fiamm Freeway Blasters on my bike. The ZFE doesn't mind at all, and they're seriously loud. Each horn <$10 from Ryder Fleet Products. Amazon's a bit more expensive, but still way cheaper than BMW. My inner cynic thinks they all come from the same assembly line.
 
Sure, there are many aftermarket options, but they require fiddling with the wiring.

Here's what I've found. The low tone horn part number posted matches the low horn for a E39 (5 series) BMW.
The high tone horn is a different part number, but has the same Hz range.
Even new, the OEM cost of the car horns is around $30 total. I will likely test and report back.
 
Just to be totally anal about it, I'd note that the horn is mounted incorrectly in this photo ...

Image3.jpg

You'll note the bent-over tabs on the black boss to which the horn is mounted--the bracket/strap that's part of the horn should sit between these tabs so the whole thing doesn't rotate. That is, the horn is currently mounted on the wrong side of this boss.

This also means the j-nut needs to be turned over and the screw installed from the outside rather than the inside. It's a lot easier to access the screwhead when it's on the correct side, too.

Woo hoo
 
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