Gelert Beyond Solaris Lightweight Tent

[steved1969]

Just got back from a brief run up to the Scottish Borders and back where I got a chance to test one of the one man tents from Gelert, it's part of their Beyond range and at £70 it's cheap, but in the high end of Gelert's products.



The tent is an all in one model (fly sheet and inner are attached), which makes it incredibly quick to pitch and take down, it packs down 38 x 13 x 13cm, weighs around 1.9kg and thankfully uses aluminium poles rather than fibreglass.

For a one man tent I have to say I was quite happy with the space inside it, obviously you are not going to be cooking in it, but there is enough room inside to get in and out of your kit easily, and store your riding gear inside while you sleep (except my boots, but the last thing I would want in a one man tent with me would be my boots after riding all day!).



To give you a better idea of the size inside I took a few snaps with my Thermarest Neo Air set up inside it, this is the large model Neo with dimensions of 196cm * 63cm







The weather gods smiled on me so I didn't have to test it in the rain, although with a claimed HH rating of 5000mm it should be up to the job. With it being such a small tent there was an issue with condensation, not dripping on me or anything like that, but as the inner and fly are attached when you pack it away the fly touches the inner so any condensation on the inside of the fly is wrapped up inside the tent itself. This wasn't a major issue, a quick wipe of the inside floor when next setting up sorted it out, and there wasn't so much condensation to make it a problem.

All in all I really like this tent and can see it becoming my staple accommodation of choice when motorcycle camping, until something else catches my eye