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.
306 km from Băbeni to Băbeni, about 6 h 07 of riding. On the way it passes Muncel - Cărămidă, Ilișua - Arcobara / Vicinal, Salva - Dealul Dumbravă and Budacu de Jos - Dealul Cetății 1. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Preluci is the sort of place that does not appear in guidebooks and does not seem to mind. The name on the stop points to a stone, a crag or outcrop above the village, and the ride starts and ends here, which gives you a good excuse to look at it properly before you go. The country around is the Sălaj hill belt where it nudges toward the Someș valley, a mix of oak and beech forest, pasture, and villages strung along small streams.
Read the complete Preluci - Piatra Prelucilor 1 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Preluci - Piatra Prelucilor 1 is where the day begins. Next is Muncel - Cărămidă.
In northern Transylvania, where the Someș river winds through low hills between Dej and Beclean, the Roman Empire once ran out of land and patience. The province of Dacia, conquered by Trajan in the early second century, had a long and complicated frontier, and in 2024 parts of it were added to the UNESCO Frontiers of the Roman Empire. Muncel–Cărămidă is one of those components, a small military site above the valley near Poiana Blenchii, part of a network of watchtowers and forts that guarded the northern edge of the province. The big fort of Porolissum, near Zalău to the west, with its reconstructed gate, gives you a sense of what the bigger garrisons looked like.
Read the complete Muncel - Cărămidă write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Muncel - Cărămidă comes up about 51 km into the recorded legs. Next is Ilișua - Arcobara / Vicinal.
A Roman cavalry regiment kept its horses near the village of Ilișua, in the hills of northern Transylvania, for most of the time the province of Dacia existed. The fort, which modern archaeologists link with the ancient name Arcobara, was a large stone camp on the northern frontier, and its remains have been excavated over the years. It is part of the frontier of Roman Dacia listed by UNESCO in 2024. Today the site is a field with low walls and grassy mounds, and the neighbouring villages of Uriu, Cristeștii Ciceului and Braniștea go about their business around it.
Read the complete Ilișua - Arcobara / Vicinal write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 86 km into the recorded legs you reach Ilișua - Arcobara / Vicinal. Next is Salva - Dealul Dumbravă.
The Someșul Mare valley around Năsăud was a frontier long before the Habsburgs made it one again. The Romans built watchtowers on the hills here to guard the northern edge of Dacia, and Salva - Dealul Dumbravă, the hill of the oak grove near the village of Salva, is one of the sites included in the UNESCO listing of the Dacian frontier in 2024. Sixteen centuries later, the Habsburg empire turned the region into a military border district, and the Năsăud border regiment, made up of local Romanian peasants, guarded the Carpathian passes in return for privileges and education.
Read the complete Salva - Dealul Dumbravă write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Salva - Dealul Dumbravă, about halfway. Next is Budacu de Jos - Dealul Cetății 1.
Bram Stoker sent Jonathan Harker to Bistritz, and the town of Bistrița, just a few kilometres from here, has never quite escaped the vampire. In the novel, Harker spends a night at the Golden Krone hotel before setting off towards the Borgo Pass and Count Dracula's castle, and today the town has a hotel of that name and the pass a hotel built to look like a castle. The real history is more interesting. Bistrița was one of the seven Saxon cities that gave Transylvania its German name, Siebenbürgen, a rich trading town with a big Gothic church, arcaded merchants' houses and a ring of walls, much of which has been lost.
Read the complete Budacu de Jos - Dealul Cetății 1 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Budacu de Jos - Dealul Cetății 1 sits at 139 km, about halfway. Next is back through Salva - Dealul Dumbravă.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Salva - Dealul Dumbravă write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Salva - Dealul Dumbravă comes up about 188 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Ilișua - Arcobara / Vicinal.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Ilișua - Arcobara / Vicinal 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 Ilișua - Arcobara / Vicinal. Next is back through Muncel - Cărămidă.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Muncel - Cărămidă write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Muncel - Cărămidă, late in the day. Next is Preluci - Piatra Prelucilor 1.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Preluci - Piatra Prelucilor 1 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 306 km.
Preluci - Piatra Prelucilor 1 → Muncel - Cărămidă is 51 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Muncel - Cărămidă → Ilișua - Arcobara / Vicinal is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Ilișua - Arcobara / Vicinal → Salva - Dealul Dumbravă is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Salva - Dealul Dumbravă → Budacu de Jos - Dealul Cetății 1 is 33 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Budacu de Jos - Dealul Cetății 1 → back through Salva - Dealul Dumbravă is 37 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Salva - Dealul Dumbravă → back through Ilișua - Arcobara / Vicinal is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Ilișua - Arcobara / Vicinal → back through Muncel - Cărămidă is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Muncel - Cărămidă → Preluci - Piatra Prelucilor 1 is 51 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.