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.
A 404 km round trip from Stârciu - roughly 7 h 32 in the saddle. On the way it passes Gilău - La Castel, Roșia Montană Mining Landscape and back through Gilău - La Castel. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,150 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Dosu forest lies above Buciumi, in the hills where Sălaj starts rising toward the Meseș range. It is a working woodland, not a showpiece: beech and oak, a few hornbeam, tracks cut by loggers, and a floor that smells strongly of leaf mould after rain. If you stop and kill the engine, the quiet is very complete. Wild boar and roe deer use these slopes, and the ground along the verges is often turned up by the former.
Read the complete Buciumi - Pădurea Dosu write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Buciumi - Pădurea Dosu 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 84 km into the recorded legs. Next is Roșia Montană Mining Landscape.
Gold has been mined at Roșia Montană, in the Apuseni mountains of western Romania, for over two thousand years. The Romans, who called the place Alburnus Maior, dug an extensive network of galleries into the mountains to extract the gold, and some of these galleries survive, along with wax tablets found in the mines, recording contracts and daily life. In 2021, after years of controversy, the mining landscape of Roșia Montană was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Read the complete Roșia Montană Mining Landscape write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 203 km into the recorded legs you reach Roșia Montană Mining Landscape. 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 Buciumi - Pădurea Dosu.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Buciumi - Pădurea Dosu write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Back at Buciumi - Pădurea Dosu. That is the ride.
Buciumi - Pădurea Dosu → Gilău - La Castel is 84 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Gilău - La Castel → Roșia Montană Mining Landscape is 119 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
Roșia Montană Mining Landscape → back through Gilău - La Castel is 119 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
back through Gilău - La Castel → Buciumi - Pădurea Dosu is 83 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.