Questions of tents?

[MW2K8]

, Bonjour, 'allo, greetings etc...

Tenting. Couple of questions for all you lovely people out there?

1) Comedy tents - Spiderman, Barbie etc. Are theses tents any good beyond the festival circuit? Or are they just comedy value?
2) Carrying on from the above, theses tents which can be thrown into the air and spring into shape, again any good?
3) What size of tent is appropriate? E.g I am 6ft tall. With my bags etc would i be better purchasing a 2 man or 3 man tent? Also considering there may be occasions when i am not in there on my own...
4) Finances dictate that 1 summer and 1 winter tent are not applicable. 1 tent, all weathers for UK and hopefully european travel. Any suggestions?
5) Roll mats. Which are better inflatable or foam?

Any answers appreciated....

Merci + au revoir

Matt

[Tim Cullis]

1. Comedy tents tend to be single skin for mud lovers
2. Quechua 2-second and similar are OKish but don't pack to a size that's suitable for a bike. Very useful if your brakes failed as you could deploy the air brake.
3. Think of where you would put your wet gear as well.

Kevin Sanders did a good write up a few months ago on camping equipment for Motorcycle Sport and Leisure magazine and he recommended bikers to concentrate on the sort of gear that trekkers would use. Trekkers have the same requirements--the need for lightweight and small pack size, plus the need to store wet gear, etc.

Amongst the best tents are Vaude (VAUDE-The Spirit of Mountain Sports - Official UK Vaude website) but they are expensive. I currently use the Gelert Mongoose (Mongoose 2 - Gelert) but it doesn't have the large porch area that you need for wet gear storage.

Tim

[klaus]

...and maybe someone should start a special "tent only questions page" soon!! GRANT - can you hear me???!!!

Anyway....what you definitely want is a tent with aluminum poles 7001! They can withstand very strong winds and storms without breaking! Because GB and the rest of Europe can be pretty wet I recommend a 10.ooo mm "rain-barrier" for the floor. As was already mentioned VAUDE are very good, you might also want to see this page: Rejka Outgear. It's the place where I got my tent something like 6 years ago and despite very extensive use it is still doing fine! Never had any problems, had to use it even during typhoons and torrential rains. Another option would be the North Face tent series. It all comes down to these questions: how much money do you want to spend, when and how long do you want to use the tent and are you satisfied with less? If I can help you with anything, please let me know - I think (guess and hope) I can call myself a "veteran camper and outdoor enthusiast"! Mails also directly to klausdort(at)web.de.

Have fun shopping and enjoy riding your bike!!

[DougieB]

I have a north face mountain marathon tent (http://www.thenorthface.com/download...tions-A131.pdf : PDF), which I'll happily sell to anyone who wants it. used for probably 20 to 30 days, but in vgc. very small pack size, and great tent, but I need a free standing inner only tent.

I think for non europe camping a free standing tent is essential. it means you can camp in a forecourt, sand, driveway, etc and not have the limitation of putting pegs into the ground. Inner only pitching is also a good thing for wild camping.

cheers,
Doug

[Matt Cartney]

Tents, eh?

It's quite difficult to strike a good balance between cost and performance. 'Comedy' tents? Well I suppose it depends on how you funny you think it'd be waking up at 3am with a soaking wet sleeping bag that isn't due to an over-ingestion of tequila.
Pop ups? Hmm, no personal experience but most modern tents are pretty simple to put up so I'd pay more attention to things like internal space, weight, pack size, quality of materials etc.
Size? I use a smallish 2 man when on my own and riding a bike. A little extra weight is not really much of an issue when you're not actually carrying the thing yourself. If you envisage company then I'd go for a three man. A good sized porch for wet kit is a nice thing to have too.
As to using a tent year round? Well, it's often just as bog awful in summer here as it is in winter, so I'd always go for a good quality tent with aluminium poles (fibreglass poles should be avoided at all costs, they shatter).
What brands to go for? Well, the aforementioned Hilleberg are about as good as they come but are NOT cheap. A little cheaper but still good quality are The North Face, Mountain Hardwear and (my personal favourite) Macpac. Macpac are a kiwi company make superb quality tents at very reasonable prices. A little cheaper, but still worth a look are Coleman, Vango and (my favourite in this range!) Wild Country.

Inflatable matresses are definately MUCH more comfortable than the foam ones, but they do carry the risk of puncture. However, the risk is fairly small and they can be fixed. Definately worth the extra money. See alpkit.com for cheap ones, although Thermarest are the originals and many say the best.

Matt

[Xander]

There is little of value that i can add to the, most people have said it all above. As for the 2second tents, the biggest issue with these are that when folded they are flat but are a circle about 90cm D. Which could be very hard to pack on a bike. I use a small 2 man hiking tent.. North face tadpole 23 and slickrock. Both excelent tents and the Tadpole can be used in Uk 4 seasons.
There is only one point here that i think is worth mentioning. IMHO the way to go iscompletely freestanding inner! I have seen all to often tents that need to be pegged out to stand, become useless if the ground is just wrong i.e hard as a rock or way too soft. A tent that needs pegging may need several differnt types of pegs to deal with hard soil, rock, mud, sand. Where as with a freestanding the worst that can happen is that your vesibule, is limp.. not ideal but better then no tent at all...

For example.. I was in Paris a while back, and staying in the campground near the city centre (sorry cantr remember the name.) But the ground was so hard that non-free standing tents could not be pitched, and many people ended up sleeping with out a tent.. and as thier gear was exposed, several people woke up to find things had gone walkabout. Off piste this is true too, and great when your mates beg you to come into your tent cus thiers wont go up and it is wet out !!!!

[mattcbf600]

If you're looking at sleeping mats - give this a little look - short video about the EXPED Downmat

EXPED Downmat Review

m

[oldbmw]

Originally Posted by Xander

There is only one point here that i think is worth mentioning. IMHO the way to go iscompletely freestanding inner! I have seen all to often tents that need to be pegged out to stand, become useless if the ground is just wrong i.e hard as a rock or way too soft. A tent that needs pegging may need several differnt types of pegs to deal with hard soil, rock, mud, sand. Where as with a freestanding the worst that can happen is that your vesibule, is limp.. not ideal but better then no tent at all...

For example.. I was in Paris a while back, and staying in the campground near the city centre (sorry cantr remember the name.) But the ground was so hard that non-free standing tents could not be pitched, and many people ended up sleeping with out a tent.. and as thier gear was exposed, several people woke up to find things had gone walkabout. Off piste this is true too, and great when your mates beg you to come into your tent cus thiers wont go up and it is wet out !!!!

This is very good advice.. I use a very cheap dome tent I can put up anywhere, and carry it in one hand to plonk down exactly where i want it. Also i use a demountable camp bed, it keeps me off the ground and being supported at the sides means i dont roll off it during the night. To my mind much better than matresses or mats. ( no chance of puncture)

[Oz]

just bought a hilliberg nallo3 gt. going to use it for the stans/mongolia next year. it is the rolls royce of tents and unfortunately this is reflected in the price. it is however big and the porch of the gt model is huge. they are also tough as nails being standard tents on many expeditions into knarly places. i reckon the nallo2 gt could the the ideal tent. we only got the 3 person version cos we had to endure a microtent for 8 months in sth america and couldnt resist the luxury of a big tent.
Hilleberg link to manufacturers site
ALPENSTOCK - The In Place For The Outdoors link to a uk shop that discounts tents 15%, we used them and they were very efficient