Why this ride
A 167 km round trip from Lechinţa - roughly 3 h 49 in the saddle. The stops in between: Livezile - Poderei, Salva - Dealul Dumbravă, Dobricel - Vârful Lazului and back through Salva - Dealul Dumbravă. The line favours views over speed.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Sărățel - Cetate 1 and Dobricel - Vârful Lazului
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 167 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 3 h 49
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
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.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. 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.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Sărățel - Cetate 1 is where the day begins. Next is Livezile - Poderei.
2. Livezile - Poderei
Leave Bistriţa eastwards on the DN17 and within minutes you are in Livezile, a long village strung out along the valley of the Bistriţa river where the Transylvanian hills start to bunch up towards the Eastern Carpathians. Poderei is the name of a hillside here where the Romans kept watch over the northern edge of their province of Dacia, and the site is one of the many small components of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire listed in Romania in 2024. There is nothing to visit in the sense of ruins; what you get is the hill, the view up the valley and the knowledge that legionaries stared at the same ridges.
Read the complete Livezile - Poderei write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Livezile - Poderei comes up about 20 km into the recorded legs. Next is Salva - Dealul Dumbravă.
3. 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.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 52 km into the recorded legs you reach Salva - Dealul Dumbravă. Next is Dobricel - Vârful Lazului.
4. Dobricel - Vârful Lazului
Spermezeu is the kind of place a road atlas barely notices: a commune of scattered villages in the hills of Bistrița-Năsăud, in northern Transylvania, between the upper Someș valley and the Țibleș mountains. The site of Dobricel, on the hilltop known as Vârful Lazului, is one of the many archaeological places recorded in the area, a high point above the valleys where traces of earlier inhabitants have been noted. There is not much to see without an archaeologist's eye, but the hilltop and the country around it are a good excuse for a ride through a region few foreigners ever visit.
Read the complete Dobricel - Vârful Lazului write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Dobricel - Vârful Lazului, about halfway. Next is back through Salva - Dealul Dumbravă.
5. back through Salva - Dealul Dumbravă
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Salva - Dealul Dumbravă write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Salva - Dealul Dumbravă sits at 107 km, about halfway. Next is back through Livezile - Poderei.
6. back through Livezile - Poderei
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Livezile - Poderei write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Livezile - Poderei comes up about 147 km into the recorded legs. Next is Sărățel - Cetate 1.
7. Sărățel - Cetate 1
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Sărățel - Cetate 1 write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Sărățel - Cetate 1 closes the day.
Leg by leg
Sărățel - Cetate 1 to Livezile - Poderei
Sărățel - Cetate 1 → Livezile - Poderei is 20 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Livezile - Poderei to Salva - Dealul Dumbravă
Livezile - Poderei → Salva - Dealul Dumbravă is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Salva - Dealul Dumbravă to Dobricel - Vârful Lazului
Salva - Dealul Dumbravă → Dobricel - Vârful Lazului is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Dobricel - Vârful Lazului to back through Salva - Dealul Dumbravă
Dobricel - Vârful Lazului → back through Salva - Dealul Dumbravă is 32 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Salva - Dealul Dumbravă to back through Livezile - Poderei
back through Salva - Dealul Dumbravă → back through Livezile - Poderei is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Livezile - Poderei to Sărățel - Cetate 1
back through Livezile - Poderei → Sărățel - Cetate 1 is 21 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.