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 400 km round trip from Zalău - roughly 8 h 37 in the saddle. It goes by way of Surduc - Deasupra Văii Hrăii, Gâlgău - Valea Strâmturei, Negrilești - Negru Vodă and Salva - Dealul Dumbravă. It was put together for the scenery rather than the shortest line.
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 is where the day begins. 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 comes up about 39 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 87 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 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.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Salva - Dealul Dumbravă sits at 140 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 252 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 314 km into the recorded legs you reach back through Gâlgău - Valea Strâmturei. 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, late in the day. Next is Zalău - Deasupra Șesurilor Tâlhăroasei.
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Zalău - Deasupra Șesurilor Tâlhăroasei write-up.
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
The route ends here after 400 km.
Zalău - Deasupra Șesurilor Tâlhăroasei → Surduc - Deasupra Văii Hrăii is 39 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Surduc - Deasupra Văii Hrăii → Gâlgău - Valea Strâmturei is 48 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 → Salva - Dealul Dumbravă is 51 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Salva - Dealul Dumbravă → back through Negrilești - Negru Vodă is 52 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 62 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Gâlgău - Valea Strâmturei → back through Surduc - Deasupra Văii Hrăii is 48 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Surduc - Deasupra Văii Hrăii → Zalău - Deasupra Șesurilor Tâlhăroasei is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.