Bicycle equipment — Texas Permit Test
Bicycle equipment on the Texas permit test — 6 rules, each with the reason behind it and a question on it while it is fresh.
The rules
Every bicycle must have a brake that lets the rider skid the wheels on dry, level, clean pavement.
It is a test of the brake rather than a description of it. If the wheel will not lock, the brake is not good enough.
Every bicycle must be equipped with a brake, which will enable the operator to make the wheels skid on dry, level, clean pavement when applied
A bicycle used at night must have a lamp on the front emitting a white light visible from at least 500 feet in front.
A rider with no light is invisible until the headlights reach them. Five hundred feet is far enough to be seen in time.
3. Every bicycle used at nighttime must be equipped with: a. A lamp on the front emits a white light visible from a distance of at least 500 feet in front of the bicycle
A bicycle used at night must have a red reflector on the rear visible from 50 to 300 feet.
The reflector needs headlights to work and works well once they reach it. The range is what the law sets.
3. Every bicycle used at nighttime must be equipped with: a. A lamp on the front emits a white light visible from a distance of at least 500 feet in front of the bicycle, and b. A red, DPS-approved reflector on the rear visible from distances of 50 feet to 300 feet
A red light on the rear visible from 500 feet may be used in addition to the red reflector.
The light is an extra rather than a replacement. The reflector still has to be there.
3. Every bicycle used at nighttime must be equipped with: a. A lamp on the front emits a white light visible from a distance of at least 500 feet in front of the bicycle, and b. A red, DPS-approved reflector on the rear visible from distances of 50 feet to 300 feet. (A red light on the rear visible from a distance of 500 feet may be used in addition to the red reflector
A hearing-impaired bicycle rider may display a safety flag.
The flag tells drivers the rider may not hear them coming. It is a signal, not a legal requirement for everybody.
Hearing-impaired bicycle riders may display a safety flag
A bicycle may be equipped with a mirror.
A mirror lets a rider see traffic without turning their head and their handlebars with it. Texas allows it rather than requiring it.
Bicycles may be equipped with a mirror
On the test
What must a Texas bicycle brake be able to do?
Skid the wheels on dry level pavement. It is a test of the brake rather than a description of it. If the wheel will not lock, the brake is not good enough. Texas Driver Handbook, p.63: “Every bicycle must be equipped with a brake, which will enable the operator to make the wheels skid on dry, level, clean pavement when applied”
How this works
Most practice tests hand you a bank of questions and leave the manual somewhere else. This one puts them together.
You read one law and the reason behind it, then answer a question on that law while it is still fresh. Get it right and you move on; get it wrong and you have found the gap while it is cheap to fix, not on the morning of the exam.
Learning one rule at a time, and proving it immediately, is what turns a manual you skimmed into something you actually know — and it makes studying feel like getting somewhere rather than like waiting to find out.
What it costs
- One payment, once — not a subscription. Nothing renews and there is nothing to cancel, for an exam you sit one time.
- Free to start: a 10-question test and the first section of cards. No sign-up and no account.
- Paying opens the rest of the cards, unlimited full-length practice tests, and retests built from exactly the questions you got wrong.
- Every level up to Prepared — 3 tests passed in a row.
- Do the work, fail the real exam, and we refund you.
Where these come from
Every rule here is checked against Texas Driver Handbook, published by the Texas Department of Public Safety, and against the state code itself. Last checked 2026-09-16.
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/TX.pdf (Texas Driver Handbook, form DL-7, Revised January 2026, Texas Department of Public Safety, retrieved 2026-09-14 from dps.texas.gov)
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/TX.pages.txt (plain pdftotext over that PDF; sha256 pinned in SOURCES.json)
- src/assets/drivers-manuals/SOURCES.json (sha256, folio offset 6, nonLawPages, the four extraction traps and the extraction flag, each with its measured basis)
- docs/plans/texas-exam-shape.md (the search that established that no official source states the question count, and the two decoys it disposes of)