Total Motorcycle Community Forums

I was wondering if bikes have horns. And if people use them to warn drivers that might turn in to u that theyre there? Its just i havent read any thing about it in the forums. Ive read plenty of posts about people flashing theyre lights at oblivious drivers. But why not use your horn (if there is one).

TKDean wrote:I was wondering if bikes have horns. And if people use them to warn drivers that might turn in to u that theyre there? Its just i havent read any thing about it in the forums. Ive read plenty of posts about people flashing theyre lights at oblivious drivers. But why not use your horn (if there is one).

Yes, bikes have horns. Yes, we use them all the time. Yes, there are lots of threads about horns. Just do a search for horns.

TKDean wrote:Ive read plenty of posts about people flashing theyre lights at oblivious drivers.

i don't flash my lights at drivers - i don't want them mistaking my flashing for giving them the go ahead to make a left turn in front of me or to pull out from the right...

If the situation REALLY warrants it, I'm too busy getting out of the way to find the horn button.

Most stock motorcycle horns are too wimpy to be much real use in warning anyone of anything.

P

Bikes aren't road legal here unless they have a working horn.

I'm with Lion_Lady on this one. The button that I never use, and have to look down to find, never seems useful in a tight situation.

As far as flashing your lights goes, that's a big no-no here. It's considered the universal "go ahead" sign.

What about a passing trigger? Ive read about it somewhere, cant remember where though. Is it helpful?

A horn is a great reminder and an aftermarket one is even better. It's great for the cars that lackadaisically drift towards your lane. In tight situations it's better to just worry about general avoidance be that brakes, swerve or throttle.

A passing trigger is a nice thing to have but most people don't know what it means when traffic builds up behind you and starts to flash their lights. In Va it's against the law to not pull to the right if you are in the left lane and someone behind you flashes their lights. However, it generally just pisses people off.

anarchy wrote:

TKDean wrote:Ive read plenty of posts about people flashing theyre lights at oblivious drivers.

i don't flash my lights at drivers - i don't want them mistaking my flashing for giving them the go ahead to make a left turn in front of me or to pull out from the right...

I see where your coming from there. Unfortuntely i was just involved in a accident like the one this guy is saying (that cars pull out on us) to be honest in my opinion all though the highway code in the uk states that flashing your headlight is warning others of their presence. now its interpretated into im letting you go. sounding a horn i think would be useless in my eyes as most of the time they will have a radio/cd on that could be loud?

Chapperz wrote:I see where your coming from there. Unfortuntely i was just involved in a accident like the one this guy is saying (that cars pull out on us) to be honest in my opinion all though the highway code in the uk states that flashing your headlight is warning others of their presence. now its interpretated into im letting you go. sounding a horn i think would be useless in my eyes as most of the time they will have a radio/cd on that could be loud?

sorry to hear about your accident..

it would be nice if flashing the lights could be relied upon to make others aware of your presence... it has, in some circumstances, come to mean you're yielding the right-of-way. unfortunately there's too much confusion around whether you're yielding the right-of-way or just getting someone's attention...

Horns are definitely a life saver. If you search hard enough you will find that many many people in this forum, at least quite a few that I've seen have upgraded to louder horns. I'm using my stock horn and it has definitely helped me a few times.