Ever ride your motorcycle in the rain? Well if you haven't then you are probably a fair weather rider only. What about a tropical depression? I have been caught in a few of these type storms where the rain is not only coming down in buckets but also horizontally! Even with the small protection offered by our lower fairing on the 2011 Harley-Davidson Ultra Classic Limited, we found ourself not just wet but SOAKED through our Harley-Davidson rain gear and boots!
The next day I used my horn on the Limited and heard what I thought was a baby bird being choked out by a cat! What happened to my horn? Oh well, I thought at least it's easy enough to replace with a new one. Before replacing I asked a few questions of a local service technician and read some articles at HD Forums. Seems as though this is NOT an unusual problem, others have experienced it before and offered their fixes.
In heavy rains, it is common for the horn to get wet, even though it is turn with the opening pointing towards the ground. The horn diaphragm gets soaked and needs to be dried before it will work as new once again. 
After reading these articles, I removed my horn and as I tipped it side-to-side there was a lot of water coming out! Next I removed the chrome cover that covered the black stock horn. After this I took a hair dryer to the opening of the horn. After several minutes drying and shaking the water out, I reconnected the horn just to the wires and the sound was better, but not loud enough. Once again I took the dryer to it, then hooked up and it had gotten better to the point of reinstalling it all back on the bike.
Before spending the money on a new horn, ask yourself, "Did I recently ride in heavy rains?" If the answer is "yes" then remove shake out the water, dry and see if it corrects itself. If not dry the inside diaphragm out, try again.
Again, should you have ideas that fixes a common problem, please drop me a note and I can add it to this blog. Until then, ride safe, sober, skilled and straight!
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