Cruise control light
Cruise control is holding a speed you set. When it goes out, cruise control has been cancelled and the throttle is back in your hand.
Check your bike's manual — makers differ.
How urgent is it? What each maker says
- Lit: Information only. Triumph (Tiger 1200): Cruise control can only be activated between 30 and 160 km/h (19 to 100 mph) in 3rd gear or higher; “Cruise control should not be used when riding in heavy traffic, on roads with sharp/blind bends or when they are slippery.”
- Goes out: Information only. Triumph (Tiger 1200): It is cancelled by rolling the throttle fully forward, pulling the clutch lever, using either brake, accelerating with the throttle for more than 60 seconds, or holding the -/SET button; the set speed stays on the display to resume.
- Lit or goes out: Information only. BMW Motorrad (R 1250 GS Adventure): Set speeds from 30 to 210 km/h (19 to 130 mph). It is cancelled by the brakes, the clutch or easing the throttle past its rest position, and automatically during ABS or DTC interventions or if the rider switches DTC off.
What it is for
It confirms that the bike, not your wrist, is holding the speed on a long motorway run. BMW’s manual adds a trap: accelerating does not cancel it, so when you let the throttle go the bike slows only to the saved speed.
These pages report what each maker’s owner’s manual says, and quote it wherever safety is involved. They are not a diagnosis and add no riding advice of our own; your own bike’s manual is the authority for your model.
- What it looks like
- A speedometer dial with an arrow, lit on the instrument panel once a speed is set; the set speed is shown beside it on the display.
- Colour
- The Triumph and BMW manuals read do not state its colour.
- Names makers use
- Cruise control light, SET indicator (Triumph); Indicator light for cruise control (BMW Motorrad)
Where makes differ
Speed range: 30-160 km/h in 3rd gear or higher on the Triumph Tiger 1200, 30-210 km/h on the BMW R 1250 GS Adventure. BMW cancels cruise control during ABS or traction control interventions and when downshifting with its Gear Shift Assistant Pro; Triumph says cruise control may not work if the ABS has a malfunction. BMW makes it unavailable in the ENDURO riding modes. The Yamaha MT-09 read has no cruise control.
What it does not mean
It does not mean the bike keeps a distance to the vehicle ahead: the systems in these manuals hold a speed only. Adaptive cruise control is a different system.
Related
Other symbols with the same shapes
Sources
No standard we could read defines these motorcycle lamps — UN Regulation No. 60 and ISO 2575 cover motorcycle tell-tales, but neither could be read when we checked, so this meaning is taken from 2 makers’ own manuals and support pages, each fetched and read on the date shown:
- Triumph: Owner’s Handbook: Tiger 1200 XR, Tiger XC, Tiger 1200 Alpine and Tiger 1200 Desert (November 2019, PDF) — Cruise Control Light, page 66: 30-160 km/h in 3rd gear or higher, with the warning on traffic, bends and slippery roads; Cruise control display, page 72; Deactivating Cruise Control, page 110. Checked 2026-09-29.
- BMW Motorrad: R 1250 GS Adventure Rider’s Manual (US model, 2nd edition, March 2021, PDF) — Cruise control, pages 72-74: adjustment range 30-210 km/h; “The indicator light for cruise control is lit”; deactivation by brakes, clutch, throttle, ABS or DTC intervention and DTC off. Checked 2026-09-29.
Written in our own words; quotations are the makers’ wording.