I want a louder horn

That little "beep, beep" of the OEM horn, IF heard by anyone, only makes them look around for a clown car. Since you're not in a clown car, and you want people to acknowledge your presence, a better horn is in order.

You can get a LOUD FIAMM horn for about $15 at a regular car-parts store (e.g. O'Reilly, Advance Auto Parts, etc.) Places on eBay have them, as well as JC Whitney and ridesafer.com.

Get the low-tone; The 125 dB AM80 is popular, as is the 132 dB Freeway Blaster. They're way louder, and are a bolt-in replacement for the stock horn. Point the bell of the trumpet down so it doesn't collect water, and cover your ears before you test it in an enclosed space. Even with it pointing down, it is loud and can be heard by cars and other motorcycles easily.

If you look at the catalog you might be overwhelmed by the amount of choices FIAMM offers. So don't look at the catalog. It's generally the same product in different packaging to meet the needs of the retailer. Here are your criteria:

• Is it a 12 volt horn? The vast majority that you can just go and pick out will be, since most cars were switched over from 6v around 1955. "12v" may or may not be indicated on the package, but the AM80S horn (#72012) has this stamped by the terminals. Look.

• Size/ability to mount on your bike. This is determined by your ability to make it fit where you want it to. The stock location will work most of the time. Hold it up to the spot that you are planning to mount it and see what happens.

• Does it actually function? Is it loud enough to hear, and do you like the sound?

• Avoid the FIAMM piezoelectric horn (looks like the stock one, or a small speaker). They're smaller, and look like they'd fit better, but they're not as loud. Get one of the trumpet (snail shell)-shaped ones instead.

The low-tone horn is still relatively high-toned. It cuts through noise quite well. The difference is that when people hear a deep horn, they get more of that instinctive "Oh crap, what's going to smoosh me?" feeling. You want them to have the feeling that they're impinging on your space. It seems to produce a more pronounced effect than the high-tone horn. When you hear that low-tone horn, you look around for the big Cadillac that's about to turn your car into junkyard art.

It's a direct replacement. No relay is necessary. It includes a bracket for mounting. You can either remove the nut holding the horn to the bracket and retain the stock bracket, or remove the one bolt holding the bracket to the bike and use the new bracket instead. Just try and see; the brackets are very similar. Installation time is estimated at "120 seconds".

A couple things to remember: The horn on the EX250 is "always hot" (meaning it always has 12V supplied). The horn button grounds it. Also, don't forget that the EX250 frame is also grounded. So, if the horn body is connected to its terminals, you need to isolate the horn body. This is one reason why the stock horn is mounted on a rubber insulator.

The top picture shows the stock horn on a naked bike. The bottom picture shows the new horn installed on a bike with a fairing.

Installation

The installation is very straightforward:

Remove the OEM horn by removing the two power connectors from the horn, then removing the nut at the top of the horn bracket.

OEM horn removed:

Here's a picture of the top of the replacement horn, a Fiamm Freeway Blaster, and one of the underside:

To install the new horn, start off by loose fitting it, with the wiring reattached, so you can figure out the best angle. Make sure that the mouth of the horn is pointing downwards, so as not to collect water, and that the existing wiring is not stretched.

Secure the bolt to the bracket, then tighten the bracket to the bike.

Here's how it looks after installation:

Sound link: FIAMM Freeway Blaster