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.
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Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
A 445 km round trip from Năsăud - roughly 10 h 37 in the saddle. On the way it passes Purcărete - Fața Carpenului 1 & 2, Gâlgău - Valea Strâmturei, Negrilești - Negru Vodă and Gâlgău - Șaua Dealul Arsurei. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
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 is where the day begins. Next is Purcărete - Fața Carpenului 1 & 2.
Transylvania's northern hills look like a landscape painted by someone who liked orchards and haystacks. Purcărete lies in the folds of the country between the Someș valleys and the Bistrița river, a region that was colonised in the Middle Ages by German-speaking Saxons, who built fortified churches and walled towns, and by Hungarians and Romanians who farmed the slopes. The Saxon town of Bistrița, not far away, still has a tall Lutheran church with a spire that can be seen from miles, and a handsome old centre of arcaded houses.
Read the complete Purcărete - Fața Carpenului 1 & 2 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Purcărete - Fața Carpenului 1 & 2 comes up about 53 km into the recorded legs. Next is Gâlgău - Valea Strâmturei.
Strâmtură means a narrowing, and the name fits. Just outside Gâlgău, a small Sălaj village on the Someș, the valley pinches between wooded slopes, and the Roman frontier made use of exactly such pinch points to control movement along the river. The site listed as Valea Strâmturei belongs to that northern Dacian line, and like most of its neighbours it is earthwork and setting rather than standing masonry. You come for the geography and the sense of a border that ran through these quiet hills nearly two thousand years ago.
Read the complete Gâlgău - Valea Strâmturei write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 114 km into the recorded legs you reach Gâlgău - Valea Strâmturei. Next is Negrilești - Negru Vodă.
Negrilești is a small village in Bistrița-Năsăud county, in the hills of northern Transylvania, near the valley of the Someș Mare. The name of the site, Negru Vodă, recalls the legendary founder of Wallachia, a figure from the Romanian chronicles who is said to have crossed the Carpathians in the thirteenth century to found the principality; whether he existed at all is still debated, and many places in Romania bear his name. The site itself is part of the UNESCO listing of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire, Dacia, probably a watchtower or a small fortification on a hill, part of the northern frontier of the province. Little is visible, but the hills offer good views over the surrounding countryside.
Read the complete Negrilești - Negru Vodă write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Negrilești - Negru Vodă, about halfway. Next is Gâlgău - Șaua Dealul Arsurei.
A șa, in the language of the Carpathians, is a saddle, a low point between two summits that allows a road or a path to cross a ridge. Șaua Dealul Arsurei, the saddle of the burnt hill, lies near Gâlgău, a village of fewer than nine hundred people in the hills of Sălaj, and the name is a good example of how such crossings are remembered. Arsură means a burn or a scorched place. It might refer to a fire in the forest, or to the old practice of clearing woodland for pasture by burning it, which left a hillside bare and blackened.
Read the complete Gâlgău - Șaua Dealul Arsurei write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Gâlgău - Șaua Dealul Arsurei sits at 136 km, about halfway. Next is back through Negrilești - Negru Vodă.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Negrilești - Negru Vodă write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Negrilești - Negru Vodă comes up about 285 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Gâlgău - Valea Strâmturei.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Gâlgău - Valea Strâmturei write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 332 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Gâlgău - Valea Strâmturei. Next is back through Purcărete - Fața Carpenului 1 & 2.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Purcărete - Fața Carpenului 1 & 2 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Purcărete - Fața Carpenului 1 & 2, late in the day. Next is 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.
The route ends here after 445 km.
Salva - Dealul Dumbravă → Purcărete - Fața Carpenului 1 & 2 is 53 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Purcărete - Fața Carpenului 1 & 2 → Gâlgău - Valea Strâmturei is 61 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Gâlgău - Valea Strâmturei → Negrilești - Negru Vodă is 62 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Negrilești - Negru Vodă → Gâlgău - Șaua Dealul Arsurei is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Gâlgău - Șaua Dealul Arsurei → back through Negrilești - Negru Vodă is 62 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Negrilești - Negru Vodă → back through Gâlgău - Valea Strâmturei is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Gâlgău - Valea Strâmturei → back through Purcărete - Fața Carpenului 1 & 2 is 61 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Purcărete - Fața Carpenului 1 & 2 → Salva - Dealul Dumbravă is 53 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.