Triumph "fog/driving" lights - my bad....

TriumphR3Newb

.040 Over
Joined
Mar 5, 2017
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Location
Kamloops, BC, Canada
Ride
2007 Rocket 3 Classic
Ok, this is where it is a case of "seems logical" and zero previous knowledge. I decided, as I am getting ready to get my bike on the road, I thought I would take a look at the driving lights and maybe do an upgrade to LED or something. After finally getting the front lens off (thanks to who ever decided it was a good idea to silicone everything together) I could see the bulb. Let me be clear, I have no idea as to the type of bulb this is, it seems like I could just grab it and pull it out (seems logical). How wrong was I? Needless to say the bulb was super tight so I just pulled a little harder and yes the bulb broke. Most of it did come out of the socket. Here are my questions (finally), does anyone know the type and possible bulb number of these Triumph lights? They are Triumph ones (not sure if you can see them in the picture of my bike, I will try to get a better pic if nobody knows what ones they are) and has anyone done an upgrade to LED or anything brighter. Thanks for reading my little rant for the day and I am grateful for any help.
 
OK - We're talking about the bulls eye FOG's on the NON-Tourings.



1) Bulb access is from the rear - Little stainless plate with two screws. Sir has opened the units up incorrectly. Inside one tiny screw releases the bulb plate and out it drops. It is NOT a socket for a bulb - it is part of the bulb.

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2) The bulb is an H3 - but in their wisdom Triumph put long fly leads on it.

3) Forget LED bulbs in there - I have tried pretty much every option possible - including custom POWER LEDs mounted on bespoke heatsinks. They are very simple, cheap light units.

3a) You could put in an HID burner. they work reasonably with HID. That is you get a shed load more light. BUT they are FOG lights - designed for short reach and wide angle.
 
Yep, those are the ones. Just a heads up, you cannot just pull the bulb out from the front ;) :banghead: :banghead:. I guess I am off to find the replacement bulbs (please let me find the in town, please, please...). I think I will take a look at replacing them with real driving lights in the future but I kinda like the fact these are triumph lights.Thank you guys so much for your help.
 
I kinda like the fact these are triumph lights.
Well yes.... but. I have 3 sets of them.
One still pristine in box.
One from Triumph but heavily modified.
One set purchased from a Chinese parts supplier in Germany at 20Euros each.

Ditch them and fit some GOOD LED units. Fogs if you want fogs and driving if you want driving.
 
Ditch them and fit some GOOD LED units. Fogs if you want fogs and driving if you want driving.

Yeah, I kinda figured that was going to be the way to go. I am in the process now of looking for a good set of driving lights that I can mount on the engine guard. I will hopefully be able to use the same wiring and switch that is running the "fog" lights now.
 
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Driving lights should come on only when you on hi beam. Therefore you may need to wire in a relay that is actuated when on hi beam to supply power to the driving lights. The original fog light wiring will not do that.

Wiring diagram is in my signature.
 
As @idk says there is that niggle with driving lights.

Something I did play with was to find some small DIP BEAM lights and fit them to the Triumph wiring. There are quite a few that are aestetically similar to the Triumph fogs.

These would not blind oncoming traffic and could therefore be used without Ian's relay thing.
There are some 100% LED options about certainly - though at a guess not cheap and not plug and play.

This was a proof of concept knock up I did using some cheap "streetfighter" headlights as Aux

full

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Not LED - Those had HID burners in - terrible idea.
 
That is a great set-up, my problem is with my fairing, I have to mount the lights lower. I installed an engine guard last year so I am thinking of mounting the lights there (kind of where your fog lights are situated now).
 
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