Hill hold light (hill start control)
Green: the bike is holding its own brake so it will not roll back while you pull away on a hill. It releases when you ride off.
Check your bike's manual — makers differ.
How urgent is it? What each maker says
- Green: Information only. Triumph (Tiger 1200): After a firm, quick squeeze and release of the front brake lever, the rear brake is held “until the system detects that the rider is attempting to move off”. The handbook warns not to use it on slippery surfaces, not as a parking brake and not for more than 10 minutes.
- Blinking yellow: Deal with it before riding off. BMW Motorrad (R 1250 GS Adventure): “Hill Start Control was deactivated automatically”, for example because the side stand was folded out or the engine was stopped; the manual says to secure the vehicle by braking manually.
What it is for
It tells you the brake is on without your hand on the lever, so you can use both hands for the clutch and throttle on a steep start. Triumph says the system switches off if the side stand is put down, the ignition is switched off or the engine stops, and then “the front brake must be manually applied to prevent the motorcycle from rolling”.
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 symbol for a vehicle held on a slope, shown in green on the display while the brake is being held for you.
- Colour
- Green while active on both the Triumph Tiger 1200 and the BMW R 1250 GS Adventure; BMW flashes it yellow when Hill Start Control has switched itself off.
- Names makers use
- Hill hold warning light (Triumph); Hill Start Control icon (BMW Motorrad)
Where makes differ
Both are switched on the same way — a firm squeeze of the brake lever while stopped with the engine running — but BMW also accepts the foot brake, and Triumph requires the side stand up. BMW has a Pro version, with Riding Modes Pro, that the manual says should not be used on gradients over 40 %. On a car the nearest lamp is Auto Hold, which holds the car at every stop.
What it does not mean
It is not a parking brake: both Triumph and BMW say so. It does not mean the bike is braking hard or has a brake fault.
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) — Hill Hold Control, pages 159-160: activation by the front brake lever, the green hill hold warning light, deactivation conditions and the warnings on slippery surfaces, parking and 10 minutes. Checked 2026-09-29.
- BMW Motorrad: R 1250 GS Adventure Rider’s Manual (US model, 2nd edition, March 2021, PDF) — Hill Start Control, pages 49 and 74-75: “is displayed in green” when active, “blinks yellow” when automatically deactivated by the side stand or engine stop; not a parking brake; the Pro version limit of 40 %. Checked 2026-09-29.
Written in our own words; quotations are the makers’ wording.