Klin is a working town of eighty thousand on the old road between Moscow and St Petersburg, and for a rider on a long day it is where the choice is turning back or pushing on toward Tver. The Leningrad highway runs right past, the railway too, and the town itself sits on rolling country at the edge of the Valdai hills, with the Sestra River slipping through.
The reason to remember it is Tchaikovsky. He settled in the Klin area in the 1880s, and the house where he lived and worked in his last years is now a museum, kept more or less as he left it, with his piano in the room. His final symphony was written here, and he died in 1893 not long after a visit to St Petersburg. Klin also has a long industrial history, and the glass Christmas ornaments made here are still part of the local identity. In a country that takes New Year seriously, that matters. If you want a souvenir that will survive a motorcycle pannier, a small glass bauble from a local shop is the safest bet you will find.
Riding around Klin, the pleasure is in the quieter roads. North of the main highway, the lanes toward Vysokovsk and the Dmitrov country cross low ridges, small rivers and big, empty fields. Corners are gentle rather than dramatic, the horizons are wide, and the villages are strung with wooden houses with painted window frames. Surfaces vary a lot. Good asphalt gives way to patched tar and sometimes gravel at the edges, so treat blind crests with respect. On the big highway, trucks are frequent and fast, and the wind sheet from a passing lorry can move you across your lane. Better to leave the trunk road at the first sensible exit.
Practically, a town this size has plenty of fuel and food, with cafes and shops near the centre and along the highway. Mornings are best, before traffic builds from the capital, and early autumn has a lovely clear light on the birch woods. In winter the whole area is under snow and the roads become a different problem. Allow time for the museum if you are a music person, because the quiet garden alone is worth a short break.