Triumph 675 Forums banner

Parking light

7K views 20 replies 12 participants last post by  Newbeme 
#1 ·
Hopefully this makes sense. I bought a new 2014 Daytona off the lot with about 35 miles on it(people test ride it). I have noticed that there is a secondary locking function that turn your lights on when you lock the handlebars. Can someone please tell me the purpose of this function if it's just going to slaughter my battery. Of course right now I'm pretty sure I have battery issues anyways cause it seems that I can't leave any lights on without the bike on for more than 5 min, since my battery will die at that point. Been stranded about 2-3 times now. I'll be sending in my battery hopefully sometime during the week

Sent from Motorcycle.com Free App
 
#3 ·
You should really try to avoid turning to that portion of the ignition. The feature is almost like hazard blinkers. For instance if you had a flat tire on the shoulder of the road and you had to leave the bike you would turn those lights on while being able to lock the steering column. I remember vividly the salesman who sold my bike to me telling me to never use this function because it will kill the battery. So in the future just turn to the first click on the left, not all the way so you can avoid draining your battery.
 
#4 ·
Greatly appreciate the feed back guys. Ok so the other day i went riding with a buddy. We rode over to his work and then stopped at a gas station so he could get food for his 12 he shift, all I did was turn the engine off via ignition switch on the handlebars. So at this point the lights are still on, he was in the store for about 5 min or so and when he returned my battery was drained and wouldn't start the bike, is the lighting system extremely taxing on the batter or do I have a weak batter??

Sent from Motorcycle.com Free App
 
#11 ·
I hate the park turn. I've done it by accident once and woke up to sadness.

If you're broken down just pull completely off the road.
 
#17 ·
so i took my battery over to batteries plus. They ended up running a few test on the battery and believe it or not everything checked out. But as the sales rep and i kept talking we suddenly figured out the 'THE REASON". The battery is undersized for the bike. Meaning either triumph sent the wrong battery with the bike or the dealership somehow switched them out over time. Either way now i have to contact the dealership where i bought the bike from to see if they will compensate for a new battery for my bike.
 
#20 ·
Hello, (OP) if I read one of your post correctly (3rd?), you said you stop at gas station and used the kill switch to stop engine and waited for buddy (with key on ?),
that's not park mode... that IO/EO (engine on/ ignition off) all lights are still on and will definitely draw down even a "good" charged battery enough in 10-20 mins. A F.I. bike needs a strong charge just to start up and run; especially triumphs (like my 955i). Ya never wanna use the "kill switch" to turn off your bike; even for a couple of minutes... you can forget easily if you get distracted by other things. ~*Always*~ turn off the bike with the Key/Ignition switch... done this so many times myself... still trying to break that bad habit of using the dang kill switch.
"park mode" will drain your battery in time but, the battery should last quite a bit longer(others made this clarification.)
I agree also, check out your battery and definitely check your charging system as well... too much or too little output from system is bad! (should I mention the over charging "Fireball vfr750" I was riding; poof... inferno!)
Btw, a ohlm /volt meter is about worthless for testing any battery(unless you apply a load to battery while checking) hence, you need to load test it properly to evaluate the battery's condition. I've had several batteries show full/almost full charge(called Surface Charge) and not even turn an engine over in all types of vehicles. The "loaded cranking amps" are what really count here!
Sorry, I get carried away sometimes... well, hope this helps someone! d:0)
 
#21 ·
I wish there was way to permanently disable this. I was working on the bike in the garage last week and accidentally did this, so I am alert to possibly doing this away from the garage. One good thing from this event is now I have a trickle charger wired to the bike.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top