Traction control light (flashing or on)

Flashing while you accelerate: traction control is cutting engine power because the rear wheel has started to spin. Lit steadily: traction control is switched off, or has a fault.

Check your bike's manual — makers differ.

How urgent is it? What each maker says

Flashing while accelerating: Fine to ride. Triumph (Tiger 1200): “The indicator light will flash rapidly when the TC system is working to limit rear wheel slip during periods of hard acceleration or under wet or slippery road conditions.”
Flashing while riding: Fine to ride. Yamaha (MT-09, 2021): “This indicator light flashes when the TCS, SCS, or LIF systems engage while riding.”
Flashing slowly after switch-on: Information only. BMW Motorrad (R 1250 GS Adventure): DTC self-diagnosis not completed: “The DTC function is not available … Ride off slowly.” It completes once the bike passes 5 km/h (3 mph) with the engine running.
On steadily after the rider switched it off: Information only. Yamaha (MT-09, 2021): “When ‘TCS-MODE’ is set to ‘OFF’, the indicator will come on.”
TC disabled light on when the rider did not switch TC off: Have it checked soon. Triumph (Tiger 1200): “Do not continue to ride for longer than is necessary with any of the above warning lights illuminated. Contact an authorized Triumph dealer as soon as possible to have the fault checked and rectified.”
“Traction control limited” or “Traction control failure!”: Have it checked soon. BMW Motorrad (R 1250 GS Adventure): “Onward journey possible. Ride carefully to next specialist workshop.”

What it is for

It shows the system catching wheelspin on a slippery road or under hard acceleration. Yamaha’s MT-09 stability control light covers three systems at once — traction control (TCS), slide control (SCS) and lift control (LIF, which limits wheelies) — and the manual says setting TCS-MODE to OFF turns all three off together.

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: Each maker draws its own symbol; our drawing is a wheel with skid lines and the letters TC. The lamp flashes while the system works and is lit steadily when it is switched off.
Colour: The Yamaha, Triumph and BMW manuals read do not state the colour of the traction control lamp.
Names makers use: Stability control indicator light (Yamaha); TC indicator light and TC disabled warning light (Triumph); DTC, Dynamic Traction Control (BMW Motorrad)

Where makes differ

Triumph’s Tiger 1200 has two lamps: a TC indicator that flashes when working and flashes slowly in its Off-Road setting, and a separate TC disabled warning light for TC switched off or faulty. Yamaha’s MT-09 and BMW’s R 1250 GS Adventure use one lamp for every state; BMW’s flashes rapidly during an intervention, slowly until its self-diagnosis completes, and lights steadily when DTC is off. On a car the nearest lamp is the stability control (ESC) light.

What it does not mean

Flashing does not mean a fault: the Triumph and Yamaha manuals describe it as the system working. It is not the ABS light, which has its own lamp and its own start-up check.

Other symbols with the same shapes

Neutral indicator (N)A capital N on its own lamp in the row of indicator lights; bikes…Gear position indicatorA single large digit, 1 to 6, in its own box on the display,…ABS light that stays on until you ride offThe letters ABS, usually in a circle between two curved brackets,…ABS off indicator (ABS switched off or off-road ABS)On the Triumph Tiger 1200 the ABS lamp itself, lit steadily or…Riding mode indicatorA word or a number on the display naming the selected mode: RAIN,…Hill hold light (hill start control)A symbol for a vehicle held on a slope, shown in green on the…

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 3 makers’ own manuals and support pages, each fetched and read on the date shown:

Yamaha: MTN890 (MT-09) Owner’s Manual, B7N-28199-E0 (Europe, 2021, PDF) — Stability control indicator light, pages 4-7 and 4-8: flashes when TCS, SCS or LIF engage; on when TCS-MODE is OFF; comes on for a few seconds at switch-on, and if it does not or stays on, have a Yamaha dealer check the vehicle. Checked 2026-09-29.
Triumph: Owner’s Handbook: Tiger 1200 XR, Tiger XC, Tiger 1200 Alpine and Tiger 1200 Desert (November 2019, PDF) — Traction Control (TC) Indicator Light and TC Disabled Warning Light, pages 65-66: rapid flash when working, slow flash for Off-Road, disabled light for TC off or a fault, with the dealer advice. Checked 2026-09-29.
BMW Motorrad: R 1250 GS Adventure Rider’s Manual (US model, 2nd edition, March 2021, PDF) — Overview of warning indicators, pages 46-48: “DTC intervention — flashes rapidly”, “DTC self-diagnosis not completed — flashes slowly”, “DTC switched off — lights up”, “Limited DTC availability” and “DTC error”. Checked 2026-09-29.

Written in our own words; quotations are the makers’ wording.