The rules on the road here
Spain rewrote its traffic regulation in 2026, and the cyclist’s half of it took effect on 1 October 2026, at the start of the autumn riding season. Two of the exemptions that went fit roads like Mallorca’s: a long climb bare-headed, or extreme heat bare-headed, were both allowed until that morning and neither is now.
Each rule below is quoted word for word from the article that carries it, in both the wording in force and the wording it replaced, so you can compare the two yourself. The rules that start at sunset are linked to sunset and sunrise times for every day of the year, because “between sunset and sunrise” is a different hour in February and in July.
- New wording in force
- 1 October 2026
- Rules quoted here
- 7
- Articles reworded + added
- 24 + 8
- Helmet exemptions left
- none
The old wording is still shown below for reference.
Each one from the article that carries it, in both wordings.
Existing articles reworded, plus new ones added, across the whole regulation and not only the cycling parts.
Three today — a long climb, extreme heat, medical grounds. Zero afterwards.
What changes, and when
24 articles of the regulation were reworded and 8 new ones were added on 1 October 2026. Six of the seven rules below are among them. Each one is shown twice: the consolidated text as it stood the day before, and the text that replaced it. Both are published by the same authority and both are quoted directly.
The 8 new articles are not in the table below, and two of them are about bicycles. They arrive as a Title of their own about towns — a five-metre gap behind you in traffic, the middle of the lane, carrying a child — so which of them reaches a Mallorcan road depends on where you are. That is the road-position page.
How we got this Both redactions of the consolidated text were read from the BOE and split into articles at the publisher’s own block markers; an article counts as reworded when its body differs word for word. The amendment histories the BOE prints under each article are excluded, because they are about the article and are not part of it.Computed from the 150 articles in force and the 158 in the redaction published 2026-06-26.Computed 30 September 2026.
The seven rules that matter on a bike
The regulation runs to 158 articles, most of them about lorries, level crossings and tunnels. These are the ones that change what you put on, where you ride, and what the car behind you has to do.
The helmet
What you wear
superseded · Art. 118.1
A helmet is required on interurban roads — which is every road you will ride here once you are past the last houses. Three exemptions exist: a prolonged ascending ramp, accredited medical reasons, and extreme heat.
Los conductores de bicicletas y, en su caso, los ocupantes estarán obligados a utilizar cascos de protección homologados o certificados según la legislación vigente, cuando circulen en vías interurbanas, salvo en rampas ascendentes prolongadas, o por razones médicas … o en condiciones extremas de calor.
in force · Art. 118.2
A helmet is required on interurban roads, with no exemption for climbs, heat or anything else. Under-16s wear one on every kind of road, and anyone riding a bicycle professionally wears one in town too.
El conductor y, en su caso, los ocupantes de bicicletas y ciclos en general estarán obligados a utilizar adecuadamente abrochado casco de protección homologado o certificado según la legislación vigente en las vías interurbanas, siendo obligatorio su uso por los menores de dieciséis años en todo tipo de vías.
The exemption that goes names long climbs and extreme heat, and long climbs in extreme heat are what most riders fly here for.
Lights and reflectives after dark
What you wear
superseded · Art. 98.1 + 98.3
When lights are compulsory — between sunset and sunrise — a cyclist on an interurban road must also wear a reflective garment visible at 150 metres. The bicycle itself carries the reflectors the vehicle regulation lists.
Todos los vehículos que circulen entre el ocaso y la salida del sol … deben llevar encendido el alumbrado … Cuando sea obligatorio el uso del alumbrado, los conductores de bicicletas llevarán, además, colocada alguna prenda reflectante que permita a los conductores y demás usuarios distinguirlos a una distancia de 150 metros, si circulan por vía interurbana.
in force · Art. 118.2
Between sunset and sunrise, or whenever visibility drops badly, an interurban rider must use at least one light or reflective element visible at 150 metres. A garment is no longer specified: a light counts.
Los conductores de bicicletas que circulen entre el ocaso y la salida del sol, o en condiciones meteorológicas o ambientales que disminuyan sensiblemente la visibilidad, deberán hacer uso al menos de un elemento luminoso o reflectante … visible a una distancia mínima de 150 metros, si circulan en vía interurbana.
Sunset is the trigger rather than a time on a clock, and here it swings by nearly four hours across the year. The same evening loop needs nothing in June and needs a light in December.
Riding two abreast
How you ride
superseded · Art. 36.2
Two abreast is allowed, keeping as far right as the road permits, and single file on blind sections and wherever the group is bunching traffic.
los conductores de bicicletas … podrán hacerlo en columna de a dos, orillándose todo lo posible al extremo derecho de la vía y colocándose en hilera en tramos sin visibilidad
in force
Two abreast is allowed on the shoulder, and on the minimum necessary part of the carriageway where there is no usable shoulder. Single file on blind sections, where the group affects the flow of traffic, and between sunset and sunrise.
los conductores de bicicletas podrán circular en columna de a dos por el arcén. En el caso de que éste no exista o no fuera transitable y suficiente, podrán circular en columna de a dos por la parte imprescindible de la calzada, si bien deberán colocarse en hilera en los tramos sin visibilidad, cuando afecten a la fluidez de la circulación, o cuando circulen entre el ocaso y la salida del sol
Most of the Tramuntana has no shoulder at all, which under the new wording is exactly the case the rule provides for: two abreast on the minimum necessary part of the road, single file where you cannot see through the corner. On the Ma-10 that is most corners.
What the car behind you has to do
What drivers must do
superseded · Art. 85.4
A driver overtaking you leaves at least 1.5 metres of lateral space.
la separación lateral no será inferior a 1,50 metros
in force · Art. 85.4
The 1.5 metres stays, and on any road with more than one lane in your direction the driver has to change lane completely. Outside built-up areas they must also drop at least 20 km/h below the road’s limit for the whole manoeuvre, and they may not squeeze past even if you are on the shoulder.
guardando una anchura de seguridad de, al menos, 1,5 metros, salvo cuando la calzada cuente con más de un carril por sentido, en cuyo caso será obligatorio el cambio completo de carril … si el adelantamiento se efectúa fuera de poblado, antes de iniciar la maniobra, y durante toda su ejecución, el conductor que adelanta deberá reducir la velocidad respecto al límite existente en la vía en al menos 20 km/h
Visiting riders hardly ever hear about this part of the reform, and it matters most on the Pla, the flat middle of the island. On its long straight roads drivers currently overtake at the speed limit until 1 October 2026, and since then they may not.
Riding in a group
What drivers must do
superseded · Art. 64 c)
Riding in a group, once the first rider is into a junction or a roundabout the whole group has priority.
Cuando circulando en grupo, el primero haya iniciado ya el cruce o haya entrado en una glorieta.
in force · Art. 85.4
That priority stands, and a second sentence is added where the overtaking rules live: a group of cyclists counts as a single moving unit. A driver overtakes all of you or none of you.
Cuando los conductores de bicicletas circulen en grupo, se considerarán como una única unidad móvil.
The roads you may not ride
Where you may ride
superseded · Art. 38.1
No bicycles on an autopista or an autovía — with one exception worth knowing: over-14s may use the shoulder of an autovía unless a sign forbids it, and a sign that forbids it has to be accompanied by a panel showing the alternative route.
Se prohíbe circular por autopistas y autovías con vehículos de tracción animal, bicicletas … No obstante lo dispuesto en el párrafo anterior, los conductores de bicicletas mayores de 14 años podrán circular por los arcenes de las autovías, salvo que por razones justificadas de seguridad vial se prohíba mediante la señalización correspondiente. Dicha prohibición se complementará con un panel que informe del itinerario alternativo.
unchanged
Unchanged for bicycles. The rewrite of this article is about personal mobility vehicles, which are now banned from urban tunnels and travesías as well.
Se prohíbe circular por autopistas y autovías con vehículos de tracción animal, bicicletas … los conductores de bicicletas mayores de 14 años podrán circular por los arcenes de las autovías
Every GPX file on this site is routed with those road classes left out, so none of them will send you up a slip road.
Headphones
How you ride
superseded · Art. 18.1
Riding with headphones connected to a sound device is incompatible with the attention the law requires. A bicycle is a vehicle and its rider is a driver, so this applies to you.
Se considera incompatible con la obligatoria atención permanente a la conducción el uso por el conductor con el vehículo en movimiento de … cascos o auriculares conectados a aparatos receptores o reproductores de sonido
in force
The same rule, worded wider: any earphone or similar device connected to a player — or any other device that reduces continuous attention — is caught.
Se considera incompatible con la obligatoria atención permanente a la conducción el uso por el conductor con el vehículo en movimiento de … casco de audio, auriculares o instrumentos similares conectados a aparatos receptores o reproductores de sonido u otros dispositivos que disminuyan la atención permanente a la conducción
The helmet exemptions for long climbs and heat
The helmet rule in force today applies on interurban roads and then lists three exemptions. Two of the three describe a Mallorcan summer afternoon.
The regulation says «rampas ascendentes prolongadas» and «condiciones extremas de calor». It gives no length and no temperature, and no version of it ever has. So nobody can tell you exactly which climbs the exemption covered. What we can tell you is how much of both the island has.
Of the 75 climbs we have measured, counting each direction up a pass separately, 37 climb without a break for at least 5.0 km, and the longest, Puig Major from Lluc, runs for 18.9 km. The regulation sets no length, so that threshold is our own. You can sort every climb by length in the atlas .
How we got this Counting climb-sides whose measured length is at least 5 km of continuous ascent. The threshold is this site’s, not the regulation’s: the exemption says «rampas ascendentes prolongadas» and gives no length.Computed from the 75 published climb-sides in this site’s own measurements.Computed 7 August 2026.
And the heat: August averages 31.3 °C as a mean daily maximum at Palma airport across thirty years of records, which means the hot days are hotter than that, and the airport is at sea level while the climb is not.
How we got this The highest monthly mean daily maximum in the normals. A normal is an average of daily maxima over thirty years, so individual days run well above it — and the regulation gives no temperature for «condiciones extremas de calor» either.Computed from AEMET’s 1981–2010 climate normals for Palma airport (station B278), the same record the season chart plots.Computed 6 August 2026.
Since 1 October 2026 the rule is simple: helmet on, every road, every temperature. This is a change in the law, not stricter enforcement of the old one. Advice you will find elsewhere, that you may take the helmet off on a long Mallorcan climb, was correct when it was written and stopped being correct the day the new wording took effect.
The rules that begin at sunset
The lighting requirement starts at sunset rather than at a time on a clock, and since 1 October 2026 the single-file rule does too — so whether they apply to you depends on the date you are riding. On that date the sun sets here at 19:32, already 108 minutes earlier than at midsummer, and the clocks have not even gone back yet.
Across the year sunset here swings from 17:29 in December to 21:20 in June — the whole year, day by day . In winter these rules can catch you on the way home; on a summer ride you may never meet them. Sunset is also what decides what time you should be leaving.
How we got this NOAA solar position computed for every day of the reference year at the island’s midpoint and validated against the US Naval Observatory on 73 dates, worst disagreement one minute. Local clock time, and 1 October falls before the clocks go back.Computed from this site’s own daylight measurement, reference year 2027.Computed 25 September 2026.
The island’s own restrictions
One restriction here is set locally rather than in Madrid, and one national rule applies to a short list of roads on the island.
The road out to the Formentor lighthouse closes to cars for the summer — and bicycles are explicitly exempt, which turns the most photographed road on the island into a bike-only road for the months it is shut. The two authorities that publish the window do not agree on its last day, and both dates are on the climb’s own page.
The other is Art. 38, and on this island it is a short list: Ma-1, Ma-13, Ma-19, Ma-20 are the roads OpenStreetMap classes as motorway, and they are the ones a car navigation app will try to send you down. The old roads beside them are open, and they are the better ride anyway. One caution about the shoulder exception: it applies to autovías and not to autopistas, the two are signed differently at the slip road, and we have no record of which of these four is which. Go by the sign at the slip road.
How we got this One Overpass query, run beside the two BOE reads and stored with them. OpenStreetMap’s “motorway” class is a mapping convention, not the legal category the article names, and nothing here converts one into the other. © OpenStreetMap contributors, ODbLComputed from every way tagged highway=motorway inside the island bounding box (467 ways).Computed 30 September 2026.
The ban also costs you distance and climbing. See every closed road, with its legal alternative measured end to end : kilometres added and metres climbed. Some of the answers are not what you would guess.
The overtaking rule in force since 1 October 2026 is the only one that puts a number on the car, and the number depends on the road: what a driver must actually drop to, road by road , worked out on the island’s own roads.
Every rule above also carries a fine, set out in a separate law. The amount, the article, and the half you pay for settling within twenty days are on the fines page .
If you are hiring the bike
A hire bike is not required to arrive with lights, and most road hire fleets here do not include them. If your flight lands late or you plan an evening loop, ask when you book rather than at the counter — since 1 October 2026 a light is the simplest way to satisfy the rule, and it is the one piece of kit nobody packs.
Compare road bike hire on the island
What your policy probably excludes
Ordinary travel insurance and many bank-card policies exclude cycling as an organised sporting activity, or cap the medical cover well below what a helicopter off the Ma-10 costs. It is worth reading your own exclusions before you fly rather than after a crash. If you need cover that names cycling, EKTA writes travel policies. Read the exclusions yourself: we do not rank insurers, compare them or filter them for you, and nothing here is advice about which policy to buy.
Where to stay for the climbs
Wherever you stay, every road past the last houses is interurban, so the helmet and light rules cover almost every kilometre you ride. What changes with the base is how soon the climbing starts: from the mountains, most rides begin with a long climb. Accommodation in Sóller.
How to read this page
Everything quoted here is the operative clause of an article, in Spanish, because that is the language it was enacted in. Only the Spanish text is the law, and a translation would read as if it were. The sentence beside each quotation is our plain summary of what it requires.
The BOE publishes this regulation as a consolidated text with one version per amendment, and the URL without a date serves the newest one. Both versions are cited separately here: the one published 5 June 2026, which bound until 1 October 2026, and the one published 26 June 2026, which has bound since.
Sources
Source Real Decreto 1428/2003, de 21 de noviembre, Reglamento General de Circulación — the text in force · checked 30 September 2026Consolidated text, redaction published 5 June 2026. This is the wording that binds today. The BOE's URL without a date does not serve it.
Source Real Decreto 1428/2003, de 21 de noviembre, Reglamento General de Circulación — the text from 2026-10-01 · checked 30 September 2026Consolidated text, redaction published 26 June 2026, in force from 1 October 2026. The BOE marks its amended blocks «No vigente aún» and serves this redaction from the undated URL.
Source Agencia Estatal Boletín Oficial del Estado · checked 6 August 2026Disposición final tercera: «El presente real decreto entrará en vigor el 1 de octubre de 2026.» Published 26 June 2026; two provisions that do not concern bicycles — daytime lighting for personal mobility vehicles and the homologated motorcycle helmet — run a year later.
Source Dirección General de Tráfico · checked 6 August 2026The release defines the category the reform is built around and confirms the commencement date: «entrará en vigor el día 1 de octubre de 2026». It is the summary; the regulation is the rule.
How this site is researched and checked
One email when this changes
We check this page against the regulation’s own text on a regular cycle. Leave an address if you would rather be told when a wording changes than come back and check.