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: planning record, not independently verified geometry.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distances and riding times are planning figures. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
From La Chaux-de-Fonds it runs 288 km to La Chaux-de-Fonds; allow about 4 h 58 of riding. The stops in between: Chenevières de Guévaux I, Vingelz / Hafen, Old City of Berne and Burgäschisee Ost. The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,000 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. The line favours views over speed.
For about 34 km this is Grand Tour of Switzerland, a road with a name of its own and a reason for it — expect company on a summer weekend. Early is better than fast.
This part of the ride is 40 km of Emmental Panorama Road.
La Chaux-de-Fonds sits at nearly a thousand metres in the Swiss Jura, on a high, windswept plateau where the winters are long and cold, and it should not really exist. There is no river, no great harbour and no easy farmland, but the people who settled here in the seventeenth century turned to making clocks in their farmhouses during the winter, and the town became the world's capital of watchmaking. After a great fire in 1794, it was rebuilt on a grid pattern, with wide, straight streets that allowed light to reach the workshops and homes, and with the long, high windows that watchmakers needed. That orderly plan is why it is listed by UNESCO, together with its neighbour Le Locle.
Read the complete La Chaux-de-Fonds write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
La Chaux-de-Fonds is where the day begins. Next is Chenevières de Guévaux I.
Lake Murten is small, shallow and warm, framed on its north side by the vine-covered whale back of Mont Vully. Under its shallows near the Vully shore lie the remains of prehistoric pile-dwelling villages, and Chenevières de Guévaux is one of them, part of the UNESCO site of the Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps. Between the Neolithic and the Bronze Age, people built houses on timber posts along lake shores like this one. Waterlogged conditions preserved posts, tools, textiles and food remains for thousands of years, and the finds transformed what we know about early farming communities in Europe.
Read the complete Chenevières de Guévaux I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Chenevières de Guévaux I comes up about 34 km into the recorded legs. Next is Vingelz / Hafen.
Biel and Bienne are the same city, one name in German and one in French, and street signs, conversations and even jokes switch between the two languages without anyone noticing. At its western edge, the lakeside district of Vingelz, with its small harbour, has given archaeologists remains of prehistoric pile dwellings in the shallow water of Lake Biel, and the site is one piece of the World Heritage property for pile dwellings around the Alps. The lake, long and narrow, lies at the foot of the Jura mountains, and its shores have been inhabited for thousands of years.
Read the complete Vingelz / Hafen write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 68 km into the recorded legs you reach Vingelz / Hafen. Next is Old City of Berne.
Bern does not shout. The Swiss capital sits on a sandstone spur in a tight loop of the green Aare, with six kilometres of arcaded streets that let you walk the whole old town in the rain without getting wet. It was founded in 1191 by Duke Berthold V of Zähringen, and legend says he named it after the first animal he killed hunting nearby, a bear. The bears have been the town's mascots ever since, and a few still live in the BärenPark down by the river at the end of the Nydeggbrücke.
Read the complete Old City of Berne write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Old City of Berne, about halfway. Next is Burgäschisee Ost.
Burgäschisee is a small, quiet lake on the border between the cantons of Bern and Solothurn, surrounded by reeds, woods and farmland. It would be easy to ride past without noticing, but it holds a secret: along its shores, archaeologists have found the remains of Neolithic villages built on piles, dating back more than five thousand years. The eastern shore site, Burgäschisee Ost, is one of the components of the Prehistoric Pile Dwellings around the Alps World Heritage site, listed by UNESCO in 2011. There is nothing much to see on the surface, as the remains lie underwater or in the soft ground, but the peaceful setting makes it easy to imagine the wooden houses, canoes and fishing nets of those early farmers.
Read the complete Burgäschisee Ost write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Burgäschisee Ost sits at 144 km, about halfway. Next is back through Old City of Berne.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Old City of Berne write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Old City of Berne comes up about 184 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Vingelz / Hafen.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Vingelz / Hafen write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 220 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Vingelz / Hafen. Next is back through Chenevières de Guévaux I.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Chenevières de Guévaux I write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Chenevières de Guévaux I, late in the day. Next is La Chaux-de-Fonds.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete La Chaux-de-Fonds write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 288 km.
La Chaux-de-Fonds → Chenevières de Guévaux I is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Chenevières de Guévaux I → Vingelz / Hafen is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Vingelz / Hafen → Old City of Berne is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Old City of Berne → Burgäschisee Ost is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Burgäschisee Ost → back through Old City of Berne is 40 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Old City of Berne → back through Vingelz / Hafen is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Vingelz / Hafen → back through Chenevières de Guévaux I is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Chenevières de Guévaux I → La Chaux-de-Fonds is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.