Sounds like a bad ground to me. The light flickering is probably just a voltage back feed. I would pull off all grounds from engine and frame, clean and reinstall and find the wire harness grounding points and do the same. Also check fuse panel connections. I have seen paint overspray interfere with good grounding points and since that machine is not that old one may have been left a little loose from the factory and now it's backed off from vibration.