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 194 km round trip from Mainhardt - roughly 3 h 19 in the saddle. The stops in between: Welzheim-Ost civil settlement northern par, Watchtowers WP 12/39, Fort site and civil settlement of Reinau-B and back through Watchtowers WP 12/39. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Mainhardt sits on a plateau in the Swabian-Franconian Forest, a wooded upland east of Heilbronn, and in the second century, a Roman army unit was stationed here. The fort was built around the middle of the second century, as part of the forward movement of the frontier, to guard the Limes that ran just to the east. It held a unit of around five hundred soldiers, and a civil settlement grew up beside it, with houses, workshops, baths and inns, where families, craftsmen and traders lived.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Mainhard write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fort site and civil settlement of Mainhard is where the day begins. Next is Welzheim-Ost civil settlement northern par.
In the Swabian Forest east of Stuttgart, the Roman frontier ran as straight as a ruler for some eighty kilometres, ignoring hills and valleys in a way that still puzzles historians. Welzheim lies on this straight stretch of the Upper German-Raetian Limes, and the town had two Roman forts, the west and east forts, with a civil settlement around them. The northern part of the settlement near the east fort is one of the components of the Limes World Heritage Site, and the Ostkastell has been turned into an archaeological park with a reconstructed gate.
Read the complete Welzheim-Ost civil settlement northern par write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Welzheim-Ost civil settlement northern par comes up about 36 km into the recorded legs. Next is Watchtowers WP 12/39.
Iggingen is a small village on the plateau above the Rems valley, a few kilometres east of Schwäbisch Gmünd, and like many villages in this part of Württemberg it has a Roman frontier running through its fields. The site labelled Watchtower WP 12/39 sits on the Raetian Limes, the stone wall that marked the edge of Roman Raetia, and from here the line runs eastwards towards Aalen, the largest Roman cavalry fort north of the Alps, now home to an excellent Limes museum.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 12/39 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 66 km into the recorded legs you reach Watchtowers WP 12/39. Next is Fort site and civil settlement of Reinau-B.
Out here on the eastern edge of Württemberg, where the Jagst valley widens into rolling farmland below the Ellwangen hills, the Romans drew a line across the map and then built it in stone. The fort at Rainau-Buch, which the ride labels Reinau-B, sat just behind the Raetian Limes, the frontier that ran from the Rhine toward the Danube. What you find today is a grassy rectangle with low reconstructed wall footings, the outline of a bath house, and the traces of the civilian village that grew up outside the gate, where traders, families and off-duty soldiers lived the way garrison towns always do.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Reinau-B write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fort site and civil settlement of Reinau-B, about halfway. Next is back through Watchtowers WP 12/39.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Watchtowers WP 12/39 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Watchtowers WP 12/39 sits at 115 km, about halfway. Next is back through Welzheim-Ost civil settlement northern par.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Welzheim-Ost civil settlement northern par write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Welzheim-Ost civil settlement northern par comes up about 157 km into the recorded legs. Next is Fort site and civil settlement of Mainhard.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Fort site and civil settlement of Mainhard write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Fort site and civil settlement of Mainhard closes the day.
Fort site and civil settlement of Mainhard → Welzheim-Ost civil settlement northern par is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Welzheim-Ost civil settlement northern par → Watchtowers WP 12/39 is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Watchtowers WP 12/39 → Fort site and civil settlement of Reinau-B is 29 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Fort site and civil settlement of Reinau-B → back through Watchtowers WP 12/39 is 30 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Watchtowers WP 12/39 → back through Welzheim-Ost civil settlement northern par is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Welzheim-Ost civil settlement northern par → Fort site and civil settlement of Mainhard is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.