After nearly being run over 3 times in the last week, I decided to get loud with a set of cheapo Harbor Freight chrome car horns.

[darwin]

It was the horn that I could barely hear over the unbridled racket of the mz65 pipe. I'll aim them back at myself and see how loud they sound the next time I'm out riding to get a better idea.

I figured the Nautilus was a knockoff of the Marco Tornado Horn and that doesn't bother me as this bike will only be wearing knockoff cheap components. If I wanted nice and reliable I wouldn't have strapped a Chinese 2 stroke engine to one of the cheapest Walmart Huffy cruiser bikes sold haha. Not to mention the cheapest bike rack available from amazon, or the cheapest pair of 12v led headlights from amazon, or the cheapest muffler from amazon (which isn't currently equipped), or the cheapest 12v SLA battery from amazon, or the cheapest silicone wire, or the cheapest harbor freight horns, or the cheapest metal twist throttle, etc. Basically, this build always has and always will be focused on "the best bang for the buck".

I think the only "nice" parts I have are the CDH CNC head, my rear tire and rear innertube. Everything else is the absolute cheapest I could get.



I'm currently using this mirror and it's nearly useless with how badly it vibrates while riding. I only have the left side installed since the right mirror is fairly pointless on a bike.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B076V6F6LR

I'm going to leave the horn be for now and instead spend the time/money on installing a set of handlebar end led turn signals and replace the cornucopia of various switches with a single 5 button unit that has 3 toggle and 2 momentary switches. I figure I'll put the horn and kill on the 2 momentary switches, use 2 of the toggles for left/right blinker and the final toggle for the headlights that I got.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/133033013853

Between the 50ft spool of 18g silicone black/red wire, pair of LED handlebar end blinkers, 2 pin LED blinker relay, and 5 button switch, it should only cost about $30-35 to get this bike properly wired up. I plan on drilling some strategic holes and running the wires through the frame to where I'll be mounting the battery box on the rear cargo rack so it'll look a fair bit cleaner. Hell, while I'm at it I may try to route the throttle and choke cables through the frame if I can make the angles work.

Eventually, I plan on adding an additional pair of blinkers to the rear cargo rack to ensure people can see when I'm turning which should further reduce the need for a horn.

EDIT: Here's my lovely MSpaint wiring diagram.

View attachment 88939

I probably should also figure out what size fuses I need but for now, I'll live on the edge and go fuseless.

How are you going to power that system Todd?

 

[darwin]

Here's a cool warning system for riders.

Amazon.com

www.amazon.com

 

[Vikingimike01]

yeah that wont do much. If they dont look alredy, why bother?

 

[darwin]

It's still cool. Don't get too excited about it, ok.

 

[Vikingimike01]

Yeah, they are cool. At least you have turn signals as well!

 

[extremeodd]

How are you going to power that system Todd?

I've had my username abbreviated in all sorts of ways over the last 20 years but Todd is a first haha.

I'm currently powering this setup with a 12v 7ah SLA battery. The U5 LED headlight pair draw about 1.54 amps when the battery is at 12.4 volts which gives me an approximate run time of 4-4.25 hours before the battery hits a voltage of 10.5 (under load) and needs charging again.
I'm guessing the turn signals when used as running lights will draw at best 250ma and while blinking will probably spike up to 500ma or so. Once I get them in and installed I'll be able to get some solid numbers.
Haven't tested the horn's load yet but even if I factor it at 15 amps that gives me about 13 mins of continuous run time.

On any given week I ride maybe 30-60 mins in the dark so the battery should be good for almost a month on each charge but to prolong it's life I'll be topping it up whenever I park the bike. These SLAs are good for 1200 30% discharge cycles before dropping to 60% of the original capacitance in an exponential decay curve whereas you will only get just over 400 cycles at a 50% discharge or just under 200 at 100%.

If I ever get to the point where I might be at risk of draining the battery on a single ride (highly doubtful) I'll just simply get a larger capacity battery. It's truly a fools errand to attempt to create a charging system on these bikes and in almost every case it's entirely unneeded. with that said, everything I've done in this thread is entirely unneeded so to each their own haha.

 

[Vikingimike01]

I was thinking of a dynamo charging setup. I'd neet to get capacitors and all that.. nope

 

[darwin]

Hub generator is the way to go. A good one with a quality brand name ie. shimano etc..

 

[extremeodd]

The downside to hub generators is they have an extremely limited output of 3 watts or so. If it's a high enough voltage it might trickle charge the battery enough to offset the 18-19w my lights draw at night but as they run somewhere around 6v it would only be good for some fairly weak lights. Great for riding at 10-20mph on a pedal bike so you can see 20-30 feet, but inadequate for this purpose.