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.
From Tihău it runs 357 km to Tihău; allow about 7 h 02 of riding. The stops in between: Glod - Toaca Glodului 2, Dumbrăveni - Vârful Runcului, Salva - Roata lui Todoran and Budacu de Jos - Dealul Cetății 1. The line favours views over speed.
The Someș river makes its way through the hills of north-western Romania between Cluj and Baia Mare, and near the small town of Jibou, in Sălaj county, it passes through a narrow valley guarded on its slopes by the remains of a Roman fort. The site, known locally as Grădiște, which simply means old fort, lies above the village of Tihău, close to Surduc and Gâlgău Almașului.
Read the complete Tihău - Grădiște write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Tihău - Grădiște is where the day begins. Next is Glod - Toaca Glodului 2.
East of Jibou the Someș river squeezes through a narrower valley, and around Ileanda the hills close in, wooded and steep, with villages tucked wherever there is room for a few houses and gardens. Glod is a tiny settlement in these hills, and Toaca Glodului is the local name of a height above it; toaca, by the way, is the wooden board struck to call monks to prayer, and hills with that name often have a commanding view. Like many points with this naming pattern in Sălaj, it is listed with the Roman frontier of Dacia, where watchtowers and small forts guarded the approaches to the province. On the ground you should expect little more than traces in a field or woodland, so come for the setting.
Read the complete Glod - Toaca Glodului 2 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Glod - Toaca Glodului 2 comes up about 45 km into the recorded legs. Next is Dumbrăveni - Vârful Runcului.
The countryside around Vârful Runcului is the landscape that two of Romania's best-loved writers came from, and it shows in their work. Liviu Rebreanu, born in the Năsăud area in 1885, set his novel Ion, about a peasant's hunger for land, in villages very like these, and the poet George Coșbuc grew up not far away in the valleys north of Năsăud. The hill itself, a rounded summit above the Someș valley, carries traces of the Roman watch system that once guarded the northern frontier of Dacia, part of the World Heritage listing since 2024, but its real charm is the view of the farmland Rebreanu wrote about.
Read the complete Dumbrăveni - Vârful Runcului write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 96 km into the recorded legs you reach Dumbrăveni - Vârful Runcului. 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 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 141 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 215 km into the recorded legs. Next is back through Dumbrăveni - Vârful Runcului.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Dumbrăveni - Vârful Runcului write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
about 262 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Dumbrăveni - Vârful Runcului. Next is back through Glod - Toaca Glodului 2.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Glod - Toaca Glodului 2 write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
back through Glod - Toaca Glodului 2, late in the day. Next is Tihău - Grădiște.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Tihău - Grădiște write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 357 km.
Tihău - Grădiște → Glod - Toaca Glodului 2 is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Glod - Toaca Glodului 2 → Dumbrăveni - Vârful Runcului is 51 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Dumbrăveni - Vârful Runcului → Salva - Roata lui Todoran is 46 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Salva - Roata lui Todoran → Budacu de Jos - Dealul Cetății 1 is 35 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Budacu de Jos - Dealul Cetății 1 → back through Salva - Roata lui Todoran is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Salva - Roata lui Todoran → back through Dumbrăveni - Vârful Runcului is 47 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Dumbrăveni - Vârful Runcului → back through Glod - Toaca Glodului 2 is 49 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Glod - Toaca Glodului 2 → Tihău - Grădiște is 45 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.