Modern Vespa

In some ways (depending on the situation) reaching for the horn probably distracts you from planning and executing your evasive maneuvers. The lane thing (as VEZPA points out above) is probably an ideal situation for a ridiculously loud horn.

Pedestrians crossing your path, too . . .

Agreed 100 %...however two separate issues:

1. An evasive maneuver should never make horn activation your primary instinctive move...just got to get out of a potentially bad situation.

2. A preventative warning via use of horn (that can be heard) is equally important to prevent a potentially bad situation / evasive maneuver.

A couple of real incidents that were prevented:

Coming down a neighborhood side street...cager is reversing fast out of drive way (long drive way) looking away from my line of travel...honked horn...he waved...I waved...no big deal.

Stop and go...highway traffic...cager to the right does the glance in sideview mirror and does not check blind spot (by the way I make it an effort whenever possible to stay out of blind spots...sometimes cannot)...begins slow move into my lane...honked horn...no problem...he waved...I waved.

On a rally on the north shore...we're riding in formation and I'm second to the last bringing up the rear...car parked along side food vendor...occupants inside of auto...wheels begin to move...brake lights come on then off....and then wheels start to move and turn our lane...we have not safely cleared entry point....honked horn...cager holds up until we complete our pass...no problem.

These are just a few instances and it did not require an evasive maneuver...just a loud enough to hear "heads up" honk.

At the end of the day...would I opt to go back to my stock horn or down shift to a single low or high tone...no.

Note: My brother who rides several Vespas (all have Stebels and one Hella two tone) also Harley Road King with a single (low) tone and is contemplating installing a two tone Stebel...had recent incident whereby a cager did not hear his horn and continued on...luckily cager picked up visual in time....

...just my thoughts

Thanks to all for this thread - I think the Stebel Horn just moved up my mod list to 2nd spot (right behind the HID light upgrade)

Great post.
Karma for you and your kitty.

I am going to do an upgrade on my horn tomorrow. I can't justify the Stebel but the $18 Freeway Blaster from NAPA should be fine. It's listed at 132 dB.

I don't use he horn much, almost never normally, but the OEM one is very ineffective in the situations where I would actually NEED a horn (i.e. with someone merging over and no place to move to).

Thanks and likewise to you! BTW one of six kittys...when anyone makes the comment..."like herding cats"...I can attest!

What is the db of the stock horn? I have a Piaggio Fly 150.

Almost got squished yesterday by a full size pick up and some misses with stereo way too loud. My horn is unless. I also find when I go for the horn I manage to hit the high beam switch instead. DOH!

I take no offence to the "Over rated" comment as a Stebel owner.
Times are tough for a lot of people and the desire for a louder horn can be had at a lower price. Good for you!

My only concern is the quality. I purchased a horn like that from my local auto parts store a few years ago, installed it on my Vino 125.
It lasted about 2 months.
I then got a Stebel, it spent 2 years installed in my old bike,
When I got my 250gts, I transplanted it (Placing the horn section in the stock location and compressor behind the knee access), three years later (A total of 5 years) and it still works great!

Keep us updated on how it performs for you, it's a great mod!

the plug and play and low cost ($15 amazon) of the
highway blaster makes it a no brainier for anyone with a scooter/car with a weak stock horn.

i put one in my previous honda elite 110 scooter and my wife's prius. great safety upgrades. the odyssey's horn is decent so left that one stock.

bought my gts250 used and it already had a stebel installed so i do appreciate its loudness and tone.

but if it didn't, I would have put in a freeway blaster - 5 min job. anything to not deal with the pain in the butt battery compartment!

I was just reading through all these posts with interest.
I have a brand new Stebal in the box, and its one of those projects I have delayed because of the infrastructure involved, and trying to find a good place to mount it and run all the wires and relay.

I don't see any posts where someone may have used a different approach, and found a nice "Chrome Horn" that would be mounted to the Exterior of the bike. Maybe off the Crash Bars, Racks on the GTS, or someplace that it adds to the "Classic Look" of the GTS. Has anyone done this, if so... Post some Pics...