The Horn or Friday Evening Crash Diet

Okay, lets talk about the peak of Italian engineering (actually it's a Japan product): The horn of the Panigale

I bought an asian horn at a local bike store for USD 10.-, just to compare with the piece installed on the Panigale. And the suprising result is:
i.) same loudness
ii.) more than 50% less power consumption
iii.) 97g lighter!!

So this modification makes a street legal bike 97g lighter for only 10 bucks. I think this is a record

Gecko
Great value you there. Thanks for posting.

The horn on my Husaberg is twice as loud as the OEM 1199. I wonder what it weighs. I will weigh later and post up.

Ok so just weighed the horn and its 202g. Made in Italy by the way. I had another really old horn in a box of spares. A japanese Niko and it weighed 330g.

I was hoping for some big air horns, Urs...lol.

Nice weight savings to add to your long list of weight reductions for sure. Interesting on the 50% less power consumption...

Gecko....you post up some crazy but useful stuff and we ALL thank you for it! Thanks for being such a great forum member with lots of good stuff to share. Who would have thought to test and weigh the factory horn? Clearly, you sir...I will continue to read and learn. Thx!

Awesome!

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Ok ok let's not encourage Urs too much. Next thing you know he will have me pounding out some Ti sheet metal for horn bodies and CF for mounting bracket

Thats the obvious next step. I may cut a few pieces of OEM shape sheet Ti. Have to be lighter than the OEM bracket. I will make two and send you one Gecko.

Gecko which Japanese bike was this to?
Endodoc can cut that weight in half for you

Twistedracer said:

Gecko which Japanese bike was this to?
Endodoc can cut that weight in half for you

Click to expand...

The OEM is from Japan, the cheap replacement is from Taiwan (Yar Ton Enterprise Ltd, Co.).

I would never dare to compare my work on the bikes with EndoDoc's pieces of art, and surely won't ask him to spare his free time to make a silly horn lighter

He's got the skills, the persistence, the network and the means that are way above mine. His stuff is truly awesome!

Urs is way too kind and dont let him fool you. His stuff is excellent and his workmanship is second to none. Last but not least he has me beat on the finish. I just try to build stuff that is functional and somewhat reliable. I gave up a long time ago trying to keep something looking pristine. I guess that is why I never bothered to paint. Funny thing this horn. I just started looking for a horn a week ago. I have never had one but many times wish Idid. I think a lightweight horn is a go. I will work on something.

Thanks for the idea and inspiration Gecko.

Thanks to Gecko for the idea.

Here is my latest update. I found a really cheap horn (see my other post, big horns and little horns) it was only about 92 grams.

I had to grind off a pressed stud and then tap a 0.5mm thread for an M3 bolt. This was hard as the stud is only about 4.7 mm wide. So not much to work with.

I then made some Carbon Fibre replica brackets. These weigh 3.4 grams. The OEM horn brackets weigh 35.5 grams.

The funny part is that the CF came from an old broken iPhone mobile phone cover. I delaminated the plastic backing scraped the glue off using hot water and behold some 0.5mm CF sheet. I am using two pieces. Time will tell how it will stand up to vibration. I will safety wire it in.

See below the difference between the two.

84.9 grams vs 273.4 grams = a saving of 188.5 grams. That is a lot of Ti. The original OEM bolt to attach the brackets weighs 13.8 grams. This is not included in these pics. You can save about another 8 grams if you replace that with Ti. A M8 Ti bolt the correct length weighs about 5 grams. And the cost, zero for the CF sheet, 10 cents for the M3 bolt, the washers I had, and $10.99 with postage for the horn off ebay. That is the cheapest 188 grams. I know some guys are thinking, just lose weight, don't have a big breakfast before raceway. But its not about that, ( I don't race ) its about the fun of doing it. Bike whispering.

Thanks again to Gecko for the idea. Just glad I did not throw the old mobile phone cover in the bin. It was a crap mobile phone cover but makes a good 1199 horn bracket.

^why is your horn as big as your bike?

You got me. I am a fake. That model 1199 is the only one I have. The horn is real though.

Bike whispering. Lol

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Always wondered why Ducati spent so much time shaving weight, then plopped a cheap and heavy piece of lead right there in the front.

I replaced my horn with Duct tape (to cover the hole) and use the throttle to notify inattentive drivers of my presence. Not an elegant solution, but it is quite light.

AntiHero said:

Always wondered why Ducati spent so much time shaving weight, then plopped a cheap and heavy piece of lead right there in the front.

I replaced my horn with Duct tape (to cover the hole) and use the throttle to notify inattentive drivers of my presence. Not an elegant solution, but it is quite light.

Click to expand...

I'm sure you used the DucTape brand.