ABS Light Illumination

The ABS light stays on when you get over 6 mph? If you didn't know, the ABS light will come on when you start the bike and stay on until you get it moving over 6 mph. I may be off on the actual mph, but its a very low number, just faster than you can push the bike.

You really need to read the code the ABS unit has stored to really know what is wrong with it. I don't know if that can be done through the MFD, or how you can get a code reader attached to a motorcycle, and even then most of the cheap OBD tools do only OBD and perhaps a few extra codes.

Its usually the ABS Module or Its Motor that will set off the light, another very common cause you can check for is the speed sensors at each wheel, either the tone wheel, sensor or cable could be bad.

Its very unlikely but not impossible the ABS light could be caused the main service brakes, it can't hurt to inspect them, but it just doesn't work that way. The brakes lines go through ABS module, but simply pass through them and the ABS unit does nothing with it until it activates and then if opens valves. So 99.9% of the time the ABS module is totally isolated from the brakes, its monitoring the wheel speeds, only when it recognizes the wheel is locking up does it activate and actually open valves to release brake pressure or pump the pressure up.

Another way to say this, that ABS light comes on intentionally at start up while stationary to warn the ABS is not active yet, once you start moving faster than 6 mph the ABS activates and the ABS warning light goes out.

The only other way it turns on, is if the ABS module fails a self-test or a malfunction condition is recognized during normal operation.

So yes, do an inspection of the brakes and look for anything obviously wrong. You want to check fuses and electrical connectors also. Don't know how you can tell if an ABS module or its motor has gone bad internally, that is what the self-test is for and the stored fault code will tell you what the ABS computer sees as the fault. I guess you could activate the ABS in controlled conditions safely and see if they work.

I have had all sorts of service brake problems and failures in vehicles with ABS systems and those service brake problems never lit the ABS light, only malfunctions with the ABS system itself (think of it as a tack on to the brake system) caused the light.

Again, the most common is the speed sensor or parts of it at the wheels to cause the light to light. But other things can be wrong, reading the ABS fault codes stored goes a long way in starting to narrow it down.