CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
220 km from Cluj-Napoca to Cluj-Napoca, about 3 h 42 of riding. It goes by way of Gilău - La Castel, Gilău - Dealul Cetății, Turda - Potaissa / Dealul Cetății and Războieni - Cetate - Grajduri CAP. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 950 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available.
Cluj-Napoca is the unofficial capital of Transylvania, a university city of more than three hundred thousand on the Someș river, and it wears its mixed history lightly. The Romans founded Napoca here, the Hungarian kings made it a rich town, and for centuries Saxon, Hungarian and Romanian communities lived together within its walls. The great Gothic church of Saint Michael dominates the main square, with a spire visible across the roofs, and a statue of King Matthias Corvinus, who was born in the city in 1443, stands in front of it. On the hill above stands the Cetățuia fortress, which gives a view over the old town and the hills beyond.
Read the complete Cluj-Napoca write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cluj-Napoca is where the day begins. Next is Gilău - La Castel.
Gilău is a market village on the Someșul Mic, the first real settlement west of Cluj-Napoca on the road toward the Apuseni mountains, and the place name La Castel says it plainly: there was a fortification here, and there still is one, layered through the centuries. Under the later castle grounds, archaeologists found a Roman auxiliary fort guarding the valley route into Dacia from the west, and the medieval and early modern castle that followed sits on the same strategic ground. Rome, Hungarian nobles and later owners all made the same calculation about this spot.
Read the complete Gilău - La Castel write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Gilău - La Castel comes up about 20 km into the recorded legs. Next is Gilău - Dealul Cetății.
Gilau sits where the flat plain of the Somesul Mic river meets the first hills of the Apuseni mountains, about fifteen kilometres west of Cluj-Napoca, in Transylvania, and the hill called Dealul Cetatii, which simply means Fortress Hill, rises almost on the edge of the town, about a kilometre away. The town has nearly eight thousand people, and from the road you can see the high, forested ridges of the Apuseni to the west.
Read the complete Gilău - Dealul Cetății write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 23 km into the recorded legs you reach Gilău - Dealul Cetății. Next is Turda - Potaissa / Dealul Cetății.
Turda sits on salt. Under the town, the Salina Turda, an old salt mine, has been converted into an extraordinary underground amusement park, with a Ferris wheel, a lake with rowing boats and a mini-golf course more than a hundred metres below the surface, inside vast chambers carved out over centuries. Above ground, on the hill called Dealul Cetății, the Romans built the camp of the Fifth Macedonian Legion, which moved here in the late second century to guard the heart of the province of Dacia. The legionary fortress of Potaissa, with its walls, gates and headquarters building, has been excavated, and it counts as one component of UNESCO's inscription of the Dacian frontier.
Read the complete Turda - Potaissa / Dealul Cetății write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Turda - Potaissa / Dealul Cetății, about halfway. Next is Războieni - Cetate - Grajduri CAP.
In the Mureș valley near Ocna Mureș, the village of Războieni-Cetate takes the second half of its name, cetate, fortress, from the Roman fort that once stood here, guarding the road and the river in central Dacia. The fort was a base for a cavalry unit, and its remains, close to the farm buildings of the communist era collective, the CAP, whose stables give the site its odd label, are part of the World Heritage listing of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire, Dacia. Little is visible above ground, but the outline of the fort can be traced in the fields.
Read the complete Războieni - Cetate - Grajduri CAP write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Războieni - Cetate - Grajduri CAP sits at 104 km, about halfway. Next is back through Turda - Potaissa / Dealul Cetății.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Turda - Potaissa / Dealul Cetății write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Turda - Potaissa / Dealul Cetății comes up about 137 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Gilău - Dealul Cetății.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Gilău - Dealul Cetății write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 195 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Gilău - Dealul Cetății. Next is back through Gilău - La Castel.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Gilău - La Castel write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Gilău - La Castel, late in the day. Next is Cluj-Napoca.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cluj-Napoca write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 220 km.
Cluj-Napoca → Gilău - La Castel is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Gilău - La Castel → Gilău - Dealul Cetății is 3 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Gilău - Dealul Cetății → Turda - Potaissa / Dealul Cetății is 60 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Turda - Potaissa / Dealul Cetății → Războieni - Cetate - Grajduri CAP is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Războieni - Cetate - Grajduri CAP → back through Turda - Potaissa / Dealul Cetății is 24 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Turda - Potaissa / Dealul Cetății → back through Gilău - Dealul Cetății is 58 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Gilău - Dealul Cetății → back through Gilău - La Castel is 6 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Gilău - La Castel → Cluj-Napoca is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.