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 398 km round trip from Sărățeni - roughly 8 h 11 in the saddle. The stops in between: Ideciu de Sus - Dealul Custurii, Domnești, Salva - Roata lui Todoran and Dumbrăveni. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
Salt has shaped this corner of Transylvania for thousands of years. Beneath the hills of the Sovata and Praid area lies a huge salt dome, and in places it reaches the surface, creating salt cliffs, salty springs and lakes. Sărățeni, a village in the Târnava Mică valley, takes its name from the salt, and Casa Sării, the salt house, is the local name for the spot marked here. The Romans valued this salt as much as Dacian gold, and the eastern frontier of their province ran along these hills, with a fort at Sărățeni among the posts that watched the valleys and, no doubt, the salt routes.
Read the complete Sărățeni - Casa Sării write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Sărățeni - Casa Sării is where the day begins. Next is Ideciu de Sus - Dealul Custurii.
Salt has shaped this part of Transylvania as much as any river. The hills of the eastern Transylvanian basin sit on enormous salt deposits, and the springs and lakes are often salty, as in Sărățeni, whose name says it all, and where a small salt museum explains the history. Ideciu de Sus, a village in the Mureș valley above Reghin, lies in this country, and the hill of Dealul Custurii nearby carried a Roman watchtower on the eastern frontier of Dacia, included in UNESCO's inscription of 2024. The Romans valued salt highly, and controlling the deposits was one reason they kept a watchful eye on these hills.
Read the complete Ideciu de Sus - Dealul Custurii write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Ideciu de Sus - Dealul Custurii comes up about 60 km into the recorded legs. Next is Domnești.
Domnești sits in the hills just south of Bistrița, the old Saxon town in northeastern Transylvania, and like several places in this region it marks a point on the Roman frontier of Dacia, where watchtowers once looked out from the ridgetops over the province's edge. Nothing dramatic remains here, but the location is perfect for exploring a corner of Romania that mixes Roman, Saxon, Hungarian and Romanian history in a single valley.
Read the complete Domnești write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 101 km into the recorded legs you reach Domnești. Next is Salva - Roata lui Todoran.
Salva is a railway village. Trains for the Maramureș line split off here from the route along the Someșul Mare, and the place has a slightly busy, crossroads feel for a commune of a little over four thousand people. The site called Roata lui Todoran, Todoran's wheel, sits right by the village in the Năsăud country of Bistrița-Năsăud, a region that marked the northern edge of Roman Dacia and later formed part of a Habsburg border regiment. Few places in Transylvania have been a frontier for quite so long.
Read the complete Salva - Roata lui Todoran write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Salva - Roata lui Todoran, about halfway. Next is Dumbrăveni.
Dumbrăveni sits in the quiet hill country above the Someş Mare, where the river curves west towards Dej and the land folds into low ridges, orchards and small woods of oak and hornbeam. Like several places on these rides, it marks a point on the old northern edge of Roman Dacia, one of the scattered watchtower and earthwork sites listed in 2024 as part of the Frontiers of the Roman Empire. Expect a hill and a view rather than masonry, and enjoy the feeling of being somewhere few travellers bother to stop.
Read the complete Dumbrăveni write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Dumbrăveni sits at 166 km, about halfway. Next is back through Salva - Roata lui Todoran.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Salva - Roata lui Todoran write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Salva - Roata lui Todoran comes up about 247 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Domnești.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Domnești write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 297 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Domnești. Next is back through Ideciu de Sus - Dealul Custurii.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Ideciu de Sus - Dealul Custurii write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Ideciu de Sus - Dealul Custurii, late in the day. Next is Sărățeni - Casa Sării.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Sărățeni - Casa Sării write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 398 km.
Sărățeni - Casa Sării → Ideciu de Sus - Dealul Custurii is 60 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Ideciu de Sus - Dealul Custurii → Domnești is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Domnești → Salva - Roata lui Todoran is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Salva - Roata lui Todoran → Dumbrăveni is 48 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Dumbrăveni → back through Salva - Roata lui Todoran is 48 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Salva - Roata lui Todoran → back through Domnești is 50 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Domnești → back through Ideciu de Sus - Dealul Custurii is 41 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Ideciu de Sus - Dealul Custurii → Sărățeni - Casa Sării is 60 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.