CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
The recorded total and the leg detail need reconciliation. Inspect the leg notes before using this record for timing or navigation. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
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From Ibăneşti it runs 325 km to Ibăneşti; allow about 6 h 32 of riding. On the way it passes Monor - Dealul Braniște, Sărățel - Cetate 1, Salva - Roata lui Todoran and Dumbrăveni. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Up the Gurghiu valley in Mureș County, the villages still wear wood: carved gates, shingled roofs, little wooden churches and stacks of firewood against every wall. Ibănești is one of the best known of them, a long village strung along the valley where traditional dress, music and crafts have hung on more stubbornly than in most of Transylvania. On a hill nearby, Cetățuia Mică, the little citadel, marks a point on the eastern frontier of Roman Dacia, where a chain of small forts and watchtowers looked toward the volcanic Gurghiu mountains and the lands beyond. These eastern posts are part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire listing for Dacia, added by UNESCO in 2024, though on the ground they are grassy earthworks rather than walls.
Read the complete Ibănești - Cetățuia Mică write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Ibănești - Cetățuia Mică is where the day begins. Next is Monor - Dealul Braniște.
This is the Transylvanian Plain at its northern edge, a land of soft hills rather than mountains, and Dealul Braniște is one of the rounded rises between the villages of Monor and Batoș in Mureș and Bistrița-Năsăud country. Braniște usually means a protected wood or reserved pasture, and the hill still carries patches of oak among the fields. From the top the view runs out over a rumpled carpet of meadows, orchards and strip fields, with the Călimani mountains a blue line far to the east.
Read the complete Monor - Dealul Braniște write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Monor - Dealul Braniște comes up 36 km in. Next is Sărățel - Cetate 1.
The name Sărățel means the little salty place, and this corner of Bistrița-Năsăud has salt underground: springs of brine rise here and there in the hills, and for centuries people used them for cooking, curing meat and treating animals. Salt was one of the reasons the Romans wanted Dacia, along with gold, and on a hill near the village they placed a fort, Cetate, meaning the citadel, at the north-eastern corner of their province. Behind it lay the valley of the Șieu and the road towards the interior; in front, the hills where the free Dacians lived. The site is now part of the Roman frontier of Dacia on the World Heritage list, though, like most of these places, it is visible mainly as an outline of banks and ditches.
Read the complete Sărățel - Cetate 1 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
72 km in you reach Sărățel - Cetate 1. Next is Salva - Roata lui Todoran.
Salva is a railway village. Trains for the Maramureș line split off here from the route along the Someșul Mare, and the place has a slightly busy, crossroads feel for a commune of a little over four thousand people. The site called Roata lui Todoran, Todoran's wheel, sits right by the village in the Năsăud country of Bistrița-Năsăud, a region that marked the northern edge of Roman Dacia and later formed part of a Habsburg border regiment. Few places in Transylvania have been a frontier for quite so long.
Read the complete Salva - Roata lui Todoran write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Salva - Roata lui Todoran, about halfway. Next is Dumbrăveni.
Dumbrăveni sits in the quiet hill country above the Someş Mare, where the river curves west towards Dej and the land folds into low ridges, orchards and small woods of oak and hornbeam. Like several places on these rides, it marks a point on the old northern edge of Roman Dacia, one of the scattered watchtower and earthwork sites listed in 2024 as part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire. Expect a hill and a view rather than masonry, and enjoy the feeling of being somewhere few travellers bother to stop.
Read the complete Dumbrăveni write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Dumbrăveni sits at 144 km, about halfway. Next is back through Salva - Roata lui Todoran.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Salva - Roata lui Todoran write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Salva - Roata lui Todoran comes up 179 km in. Next is back through Sărățel - Cetate 1.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Sărățel - Cetate 1 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
215 km in you reach back through Sărățel - Cetate 1. Next is back through Monor - Dealul Braniște.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Monor - Dealul Braniște write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Monor - Dealul Braniște, late in the day. Next is Ibănești - Cetățuia Mică.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Ibănești - Cetățuia Mică write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 325 km.
Ibănești - Cetățuia Mică → Monor - Dealul Braniște is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Monor - Dealul Braniște → Sărățel - Cetate 1 is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Sărățel - Cetate 1 → Salva - Roata lui Todoran is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Salva - Roata lui Todoran → Dumbrăveni is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Dumbrăveni → back through Salva - Roata lui Todoran is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Salva - Roata lui Todoran → back through Sărățel - Cetate 1 is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Sărățel - Cetate 1 → back through Monor - Dealul Braniște is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Monor - Dealul Braniște → Ibănești - Cetățuia Mică is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.