Anyone riding west out of Cluj on the E60 meets the same sequence: a long climb to Huedin, a market town on a wide valley floor, then a long run down towards Ciucea and the gorge of the Crișul Repede, with the Apuseni Mountains closing in on the south. What I can describe is the way the road behaves.
The E60 is the main artery between Transylvania and the Hungarian border at Borș, and it carries a heavy load of trucks, buses and impatient cars. The surface is generally decent, but the road is narrow for its traffic, with long uphill sections where lorries crawl and drivers pass on short gaps. The sensible approach is to be patient, take the passes in your stride, and let the faster ones go. Better, take a side road. Within a few minutes of leaving the highway the traffic vanishes, the tarmac narrows, and you are among haystacks and wooden gates, with a small church on the ridge and the Vlădeasa range in the background.
The weather in the Apuseni is changeable. Fog fills the valleys in autumn, and snow can arrive as early as October on the higher roads, while in July the afternoon thunderstorms roll across the ridges with sharp gusts. Spring is often wet. The best months are probably June and September, when the meadows are lush and the air is clear.
Huedin is the place for fuel and a proper meal, with several stations, supermarkets and cafes, and Ciucea, a smaller town, has stations too. Poieni is a village of a thousand people, and the shop sells the basics. The local specialities are cheese, smoked sausage and a strong plum brandy, and many households sell honey from roadside tables.
Keep an eye on the weather over the mountains and, if clouds build, find a cafe and wait. The storms pass quickly, and the light afterwards is superb.