Yesterday I bought the smoothest, fastest, and quietest bike I have ever owned. The 1290 is great, although I have to do something about it being so quiet. Today, with 70 miles on it, I set the calendar and clock, which the dealer didn't. Now I get a triangle alarm symbol and a service alert which just says "Service" which pops up on startup . Since most problems are caused by the last thing you did, I don't think this is a problem with the bike. It performs and rides the same, and all levels of lubes seem fine. When I started setting the clock the message wasn't on, and all it did was idle while I set the clock, not ride. Oh, and I took the seat off, and put it back on.
I saw a post, which now I can't find again, about this happening to people after around 600 miles, due to the bike thinking it was time for service, but not at 70 miles.

Any help for a newbie?

Means it's setup wrong on either date or km/miles.
it has been covered here, forgot how to reset it, do a search.
Need to keep the arrows in while turning the key on...

If you've taken the seat off you will have to return to the dealer to have the reset seat procedure performed.
That should take care of it.

Thanks,
I will try that tonight. Possibly it was set for time as well as miles, and setting the calendar would have activated it.