Motorcycle routes · The Ciumârna pass, 1,100 m
The northern loop: Moldovița, the Ciumârna pass with the Palma monument, Sucevița, Marginea and back through Gura Humorului.
Start and finish: Câmpulung Moldovenesc
The northern loop, the one where you ride more on good road than on mountain. You leave Câmpulung on the DN 17, at Vama you turn onto the DN 17A up the Moldovița valley, climb to the Ciumârna pass where the „Palma” monument stands, drop to Sucevița and come back through Marginea, Solca and Gura Humorului. 140 kilometres, three hours twenty of riding. The hairpins at Ciumârna are wide and the tarmac is good, so it's the loop you take when you want to ride, not to fight the road.
Daylight · The Ciumârna pass, 1,100 m · today,
Times for the trailhead. Between the ridges it gets dark earlier: turn back an hour before sunset.
Weather · The Ciumârna pass, 1,100 m · today,
Forecast for the trailhead. On the ridge it is colder and windier.
The kilometres and times are measured on the map, from the gate of the house. The time is what you actually ride: with photo and coffee stops, add half again.
See the whole route on the map All 8 points of the loop, in order, opened straight in Google Maps. From there you can start the navigation or send it to your phone.| Câmpulung Moldovenesc → Sadova | 4.1 km · 6 min Four kilometres west on the DN 17, then right onto the DN 17A. This is where the road built between 1949 and 1969 begins. |
|---|---|
| Sadova → Vatra Moldoviței | 20.8 km · 24 min The climb to the Curmătura Boului pass, also called Trei Movile, in the Obcina Feredeului, then down into the Moldovița valley. |
| Vatra Moldoviței → Ciumârna pass | 16.9 km · 18 min The climb to Palma, 1,100 m, over the Obcina Mare. Wide hairpins, the best stretch to ride on the loop. |
| Ciumârna pass → Sucevița | 15.1 km · 24 min The drop north-east, with the Obcine ahead. |
| Sucevița → Marginea | 8.9 km · 16 min A short valley road. Black pottery is made at Marginea. |
| Marginea → Gura Humorului | 34.2 km · 48 min Crossing the Obcina Mare, through Solca and Cacica. |
| Gura Humorului → Câmpulung Moldovenesc | 33.7 km · 48 min The DN 17 back west, through Frasin and Vama. |
We counted every bend on the route. Not the gentle waves of the road, but the real turns: where the road changes direction by more than 12 degrees, which is enough to feel the bars move. Then we split the loop into two-kilometre pieces and gave each piece its number of bends. That's what the chart below shows: the taller the bar, the twistier that stretch is.
Twistiest: kilometres 12–14 48 bends in two kilometres, that is one every 42 metres.
About 15 km of patched tarmac, with bumps and repairs, starting just before the Trei Movile pass and ending close to the entrance to Vatra Moldoviței. The rest has been surfaced in sections.
Wide hairpins, the climb to Palma. The best stretch to ride on the loop.
County roads through villages: narrower surface, local traffic, gateways.
National road with heavy traffic; it's the main route to Suceava.
Tarmac changes from one year to the next. Above is what we know now. Before you go, ask us.
These are the pumps mapped in the villages and towns along the route. They close, they move: in the mountains, don't count on just one.
The things that come from the road itself: how narrow it is, how steep, what it passes through. How often they happen is our own judgement, not statistics.
The 15 km or so before the Trei Movile pass, almost as far as Vatra Moldoviței. Not big holes, but patched tarmac, which on two wheels tells more than in a car.
The DN 17A runs through long villages, with houses on both sides. Carts, dogs, poultry and animals coming out of yards, above all at dawn and dusk.
At the lane ends and field exits, during farm work. On wet tarmac it turns to mud.
A 50 limit along the whole length of the villages. There are tempting straights, exactly where the camera waits.
On Sundays and feast days the road to Sucevița and Moldovița fills up, with coaches stopping at the monasteries.
A concrete hand almost seven metres tall, on the left as you come from Sadova. Parking right by the monument.
Best seen from above, from the pass, looking back towards Moldovița.
Fortress walls and exterior frescoes. Photography inside the grounds has its own rules; ask at the entrance.
The fresco of the Siege of Constantinople, on the south wall. The good light is in the morning.
a Bistro or Brasserie, before you set off.
The last place with real options before the Moldovița valley.
Terraces in the village, by the monastery and by the black pottery workshops.
Bukowien, 40 minutes from the house, on the way back if you take the detour through Voroneț.
Taste Bucovina
On the way back, if you take the detour through Voroneț. Tried by us.
we've eaten hereYou won't find a workshop that works on motorcycles alone on any of these roads. The nearest is in Suceava, some seventy kilometres from the house and further from most of the loops. What you will find are car workshops and tyre places in the villages and towns, and plenty of them will turn a hand to a motorcycle. For a puncture, a battery or a tyre, they'll sort you out. For the engine, call first.
Call ahead. They keep their own hours and not all of them work on Saturdays.
Information verified on . We measured the kilometres on the map ourselves; the fuel stations and workshops are the mapped ones. Opening times and prices change, check before you set off.
The other loops
A base for the loops
Parking in the yard and the whole house to yourselves. Leave at sunrise without waking a reception desk, and come back as late as you like.
Via Transilvanica