First attempt at farklization

So I have now made my first attempt at farklizing my Sprint, and the first time that I have had the panels off of it. All I did was change to a pair of Fiamm Freeway Blaster horns and swap out a rusty cigarette lighter socket that the previous owner had installed. One thing that I added was some neoprene washers on all of the body work screws that were on the panels that I was working with. Some of the original nylon washers were missing, so I thought this might be a way of not overtightening the screws.
Neoprene washers from Home Depot, 33 cents for a package of 4.
Neoprene Washers - Hi-Res (all hi-res images are 1024x768)


The first farkle I did was rather simple. The previous owner had installed a standard cigarette lighter socket under the BMW style powerlet. It was an auto type and had rusted since it had been exposed to the weather. I went to West Marine (next door to Cycle Gear) and picked up a marine grade lighter socket with a weather cap. This was easy, the existing wiring just plugged right onto the new socket. I did have to make the mounting hole on the existing bracket since the nylon socket was a little larger, so I put the Dremel to work.

Here it is mounted below the BMW style socket. The lower bracket was mounted to the alternator with and existing alternator bolt.
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Here it is with the bodywork installed.
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Now I know many people have done this mod, so I am not shedding any new light on the subject. I installed a pair of the Fiamm Freeway Blaster AM-80 (High Frequency/Low Frequency) horns the I bought from Harbor Frieght. I bought the Fiamm horn relay from O'Reilly's, I enclosed all wiring in the split wire cover and taped it up just like stock, all connections except one were soldered and taped and zip-tied to the radiator brackets and wiring looms under the tank. I mounted the horns usuing the supplied brackets onto the bottom of the lower radiator mounting brackets. One thing that I am considering doing is changing the connections to the horns themselves. The way they are positioned the supplied connector and blade type connections comes in contact with the radiator shrouds. I may change to a pin type of connector and ditch the blade type that came with the horns. I ran a wire from the existing horn wiring to the relay by soldering a blade type of connection to plug into the existing horn connection.

Here are the pics of the horn installation.
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Here is a pic of the relay installed. I zip-tied to the rear upper sub-frame, there is a spot on the outside of the sub-frame where if I do the lighting mod in the future I will relocate this relay to that location behind the bodywork on that side by the battery. The fuse for the battery lead is in the clear small blade holder next to the battery, so changing it would be easy. I also used some Smart Glow Fuses that I found at O'Reilly's, they glow when they blow. They have them in the regular and mini size blade fuses. The fuse holder was the same brand so it is clear and you can see if the fuse blows.
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Here are the pics with the bodywork back on the bike.
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Like I said, nothing new here but it was a chance for me to try something relatively easy. They are definitely much louder. The auxillary lighting project that I want to do would be much more involved and require more fabrication and much more money.

UPDATE - I made some L-brackets to mount the horns vertical which made for a more protected connector and put them right next to the fairing and out of the way of the tire/fender.

I know some boyz that will polish yo frame and wheels for you....yo....

I would like the silver wheels off the 2001 and newer Sprints, but polishing ain't for me.

A friend polished his Porsche egg-poacher wheels off of his 944turbo, they were horrible to keep looking nice. He finally got them clearcoated after he got tired of cleaning them all the time. They stayed nicer looking but were never as shiny as they were before.

So that's what the guts of my bike look like. scratch the Naked Sprint idea...

I would be interested in the frame/wheel polish, assuming I ever have more than gas $$

I stripped and polished the the outer edges of the rims on my Bandit. They looked fantastic as long as you kept them clean and waxed. They oxidized very quickly if you didn't keep up with them. I still have the rest of the quart of aircraft stripper if anyone is so inclined.

A couple suggestions..grain of salt included Since you have you connectors crimped and it doesn't look like you have much extra length, I would

a) Get some shrink wrap and cover the ends of the connectors (weatherproofing) as well as put some die-electric grease on the terminals.

b) Since the horn is facing forward, I would get some stockings, old use if you have em around, or new cheap black ones...cut a section that covers the face of the horn and will allow you to wrap behind the bell of the horn and glue or rubberband/secure the hose, this will not effect the loudness, but it will keep water and bugs from getting into your horns and ruining them.

This comes from experiences with these horns Would hate to see you have to buy a replacement set after a year or so of riding.

I have the 132 db Hiway blaster (big rig sound) horns on my Connie, and those that have heard them know how loud they are I have since found a setup that has the horns back to back with a small compressor that bumps them to 139 db