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.
From Băbeni it runs 389 km to Băbeni; allow about 7 h 05 of riding. The stops in between: Porolissum, Huta - Salhiger, Gilău - La Castel and Turda - Potaissa / Dealul Cetății. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 950 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
Northern Sălaj is quiet country: low wooded hills, hay meadows, plum orchards and villages strung along the Someș river and its side valleys, with wooden churches and haystacks built around poles in the fields. Cliț is a small village near Băbeni, and the point named Fața Chicerii lies in the hills above it. Names in this list follow the pattern of the Romanian archaeological record, a village and then the local name of a hillside, and in this part of Sălaj many such points belong to the line of watchtowers and small forts of the Roman frontier of Dacia, which UNESCO recognised in 2024.
Read the complete Cliț - Fața Chicerii write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Cliț - Fața Chicerii is where the day begins. Next is Porolissum.
On a hill above the village of Moigrad, the Roman town of Porolissum guarded a key pass through the Meseș mountains, the gateway to Roman Dacia from the north-west. Founded as a military camp after the conquest in 106, it grew into a town of thousands, with a large fort, an amphitheatre, temples, baths and a customs post, and it became a municipium, a self-governing city, under the emperor Septimius Severus. The ruins are among the most impressive Roman remains in Romania, with a reconstructed fort gate, walls and parts of the town, and they are part of the frontier sites of Roman Dacia.
Read the complete Porolissum write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Porolissum comes up about 32 km into the recorded legs. Next is Huta - Salhiger.
Huta is a Romanian word for a glassworks or ironworks, and the name usually points to an old forest industry: a place where charcoal burners and glassblowers once worked in clearings in the beech woods. The village of this name lies in the hills between Ciucea, in Cluj county, and the villages of Cizer and Stârciu in the neighbouring county of Sălaj, in the broken country where the Meseș and Plopiș mountains meet.
Read the complete Huta - Salhiger write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 71 km into the recorded legs you reach Huta - Salhiger. 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, about halfway. 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 sits at 178 km, about halfway. 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 comes up about 250 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Huta - Salhiger.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Huta - Salhiger write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 318 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Huta - Salhiger. Next is back through Porolissum.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Porolissum write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Porolissum, late in the day. Next is Cliț - Fața Chicerii.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Cliț - Fața Chicerii write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 389 km.
Cliț - Fața Chicerii → Porolissum is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Porolissum → Huta - Salhiger is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Huta - Salhiger → Gilău - La Castel is 68 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Gilău - La Castel → Turda - Potaissa / Dealul Cetății is 55 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Turda - Potaissa / Dealul Cetății → back through Gilău - La Castel is 56 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Gilău - La Castel → back through Huta - Salhiger is 68 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Huta - Salhiger → back through Porolissum is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Porolissum → Cliț - Fața Chicerii is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.