Installing a Shockwave Horn on an SV650

Update: One of these caught fire. I have since removed them from all of my vehicles.

The shockwave is the newest horn from Screaming Banshee. It’s smaller, lighter, cheaper, and most importantly, louder!

I’ve had very loud horns on my motorcycles and cars before. They were kind of frustrating since they only had one sound: crazy loud. One of the things I like about the shockwave is how it has two loudness modes. The first with a quick tap is normal 100db, but with a long press it is the full 123db! Nice to say “hi” and another to say “look out!”.

It was easy to install this horn on my SV650 and it is MUCH louder than the stock. I ended up putting it on the left side of the engine since there isn’t room above the fender in the stock location.

These are the tools I used to install the horn on my SV650.

• Socket wrench with extension
• 4mm hex head
• 6mm hex head
• Philips screwdriver
• 14mm wrench
• pliers
• wire cutters
• blue loctite 
• 2 small zip ties and 2 large zip ties
• includes affiliate links to support the blog

The contents of the Shockwave box. The horn itself, connecting wires, connectors, and mounting hardware. My box included an extra mounting bracket shown on the left.

Here is a close-up of the back of the horn with the dipswitches for changing the function of the horn and the 25amp fuse.

1) Remove the side panels with the 4mm hex

2) Remove the two seat bolts with the 6mm hex

3) Disconnect the battery with the Philips screwdriver

4) With the 6mm hex, remove this bolt on the left side of the frame.

5) Crimp the round connector onto the black ground wire.

6) Put the ground wire on the inside of the bolt and horn mount, so it connects to the raw metal of the frame.

7) Use the short mounting bracket and the blue loctite.

8) Put the mounting bolt and washers on the other end using loctite again. Tighten the bolt in the frame.

9) Mount the horn on the bolt and make sure there is a gap between the horn and the engine. Tighten with the 14mm wrench.

10) Attach the wiring harness to the back of the horn.

11) Crimp the flat connectors onto the end of the blue wires.

12) Route the blue wires around the frame and radiator to the front of the bike where the stock horn is plugged in. Detach the wires from the stock horn and connect to the new blue wires.

13) Crimp the other round connector onto the red wire. Route the red wire along the frame back to the battery.

14) Connect the red wire to the battery and tighten. Reconnect the negative side of the battery.

15) Reattach the seat and side panels.

16) Use the zip ties to secure the cables to the bike. I attached mine to the frame.

17) Test your new horn and use it wisely!

The total install time was less than 20 minutes. It was one of the easiest mods to my SV yet.

While I received this horn as a demo unit in exchange for this post, I liked it so much I bought another one.

Get your horn at: https://screaming-banshee.com/ 

Until July 20, 2016, there is also a Kickstarter going at: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/846667950/shockwave-the-first-smart-motorcycle-warning-syste

SV650 LED Turn Signal Install

In my quest to make my 2001 SV650 more visible to other road users and to the future pleasure of my riding companions, I upgraded my turn signals to bright LEDs. One of the signals was also burned out and the bulb is not removable. The previous owner of my bike replaced the stock signals with the little orange ones below which people had a tough time seeing during the day.

The indicators are these 15 LED Single Circuit Amber Lights.
 
I used the following tools to do my install:

• 4mm allen wrench
• 6mm allen wrench
• 3/8" socket wrench 
  • 12mm socket
  • 10mm socket
  • 8mm socket
  • short extension
• flathead screwdriver
• philips screwdriver 
• needle nose pliers 
• 14mm wrench
• 12mm wrench
• 10mm wrench
• 8mm wrench
• blue loctite 
• soldering iron and solder
• shrink tubing and electrical tape
• includes affiliate links to support the blog

Here are some photos of the signals and bike before the upgrade:

As with the brake light upgrade, I took a lot of extra pictures of the hardware than normal. There are many bolts and screws of different sizes, and I wanted to remember where they all went since I did this work over many days.

1) Remove both of the seats. Use the 4mm allen wrench for the side panels around the main seat then use the 6mm allen wrench for the main seat.

2) With the 12mm socket, remove the grab bar

3) Use the philips screwdriver to remove the screws on the rear cowling between the seats.
 
4)Remove the six screws that hold the rear cowling.

5) My SV650 has a custom undertray:

with two screws and two 8mm bolts with 10mm nuts.

6) Remove the two screws holding the pillion seat lock

7) Twist the cable for the lock out of the grove and then remove it.

8) Now, the rear cowling can be removed. There are two rubber posts shown below that sit firmly in the rubber grommets. Carefully pull to the sides and remove.

9)Rear cowling removed:

All of the plastic removed, and the bike is ready to work on.

10) Unplug the existing connectors for the signals and pull the cable out the bottom

11) I loosened the bolts on the old signals with the 14mm wrench and removed them from the bike. It took a while to remove all the old electrical tape.

12) I cut the stock connector off the old signals and wired them into the new ones. SV650 black with white stripe = new signal black SV650 black = new signal yellow.
13) I marked each signal, so I wouldn’t mix them up. The black stock connector is the right side and the grey one is the left. I also covered the all the wires in heatshrink tubing before mounting.

14) I mounted the new signals to the existing bracket on the top of the license plate

15) I cleaned up the bottom with some zip tipes and some extra heavy duty electrical tape to provide some extra support to the wires and heatshrink.

16) Plug everything back in and test. The old signal is on the left and the new on the right. The pictures don’t show it very well, but the new ones are much bright (at least in my garage). Since I did this most last winter, and am now just posting. I can also comment that others say they are much easier to see too.
 
17) Now move to the front of the bike and remove the headlight to get at the stock connectors behind the bulb.

18) The connectors on the front are the same as the back. The black stock connector is the right side and the grey one is the left.

19) The finished signals installed:
 
20) Reinstall the cowling, headlight, seats, etc.
21) Go for a ride!
They flash faster than the old bulbs did. I did purchase a flasher relay to slow them down, but I like them flashing faster as it is more eye catching.
I’ve had them on the bike for over a year now, and I still like them.