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.
401 km from Năsăud to Năsăud, about 8 h 38 of riding. On the way it passes Purcărete - Fața Carpenului 1 & 2, Gâlgău - Valea Strâmturei, Surduc - Deasupra Văii Hrăii and Zalău - Deasupra Șesurilor Tâlhăroasei. The line favours views over speed.
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 Surduc - Deasupra Văii Hrăii.
Surduc is a village in the Someș valley in Sălaj county, north-western Romania, where the river cuts a narrow path through hills on its way toward Baia Mare. Above the village, on a ridge overlooking the valley of the Hrăii stream, there are traces of a Roman watchtower, part of the frontier of the province of Dacia. The nearby villages of Tihău and Băbeni, and the town of Jibou, are all close by.
Read the complete Surduc - Deasupra Văii Hrăii write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Surduc - Deasupra Văii Hrăii, about halfway. Next is Zalău - Deasupra Șesurilor Tâlhăroasei.
The Meseș mountains rise to the west of Zalău like a long green wall, and they formed the natural western boundary of Roman Dacia in this region. Along their crest and on the slopes above the plains, the Romans built a line of watchtowers, and the site above the fields with the evocative name of Șesurile Tâlhăroasei, roughly the robbers' flats, near the villages of Treznea and Aghireș, is one of them. It is part of the Dacian frontier on the World Heritage list. Up in the forest the remains are modest, but the position, high on a slope with a view over the valley, shows how the frontier used every advantage of the terrain.
Read the complete Zalău - Deasupra Șesurilor Tâlhăroasei write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Zalău - Deasupra Șesurilor Tâlhăroasei sits at 139 km, about halfway. Next is back through Surduc - Deasupra Văii Hrăii.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Surduc - Deasupra Văii Hrăii write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Surduc - Deasupra Văii Hrăii comes up about 239 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 287 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 401 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 → Surduc - Deasupra Văii Hrăii is 48 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Surduc - Deasupra Văii Hrăii → Zalău - Deasupra Șesurilor Tâlhăroasei is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Zalău - Deasupra Șesurilor Tâlhăroasei → back through Surduc - Deasupra Văii Hrăii is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Surduc - Deasupra Văii Hrăii → back through Gâlgău - Valea Strâmturei is 48 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.