Looking for a tent suitable for arthritis sufferer
 

I have arthritis in my left knee and right hip and find most solo tents are so low, they are impossible to get into for me. Well getting out and up is the issue.

I am planning on one trip this year and maybe 2 a year afterwards.

Any ideas would be welcome

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Don't know how tall you are but have you considered one of the small Tentipi's?
Expensive sadly.

They look amazing, but wow, would need a mortgage lol

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The only tall tents I've seen have been big and heavy enough I wouldn't want to transport them on a motorbike - or possibly even lift them when packed up, if I had joint problems beyond one bad leg. Last year I did a trip only staying in hostels and I've gotta say that my leg thanked me ... looking forward I don't think I'm going to camp more than a couple of nights before using a proper bed.

We used a couple of REI tents (can't remember the model names) in the US a few years back - one a 4 person size (used solo) and the other a 6 person size (used by two people). You can see them in the 'arty' B/W pic below. Both tents had enough headroom to stand up inside (if you were under about 5' 10" anyway). They weren't particularly heavy but took up huge amounts of luggage space on the bikes. The downside with arthritis wouldn't be so much using them as putting them up / taking them down as that involved a fair amount of crawling about getting poles aligned / pegs in the ground etc. We used them on a two nights camping + one night hotel basis and they were fine. They were like giant 'play tents' and fine in dry sunny weather. Whether they'd be quite so good in extended rain is another matter.

https://i.postimg.cc/CLdBsvt3/Moab-camp.jpg

Yeah the pegs my mate can do. Maybe that is what I will do is to get a 4 man tent and have room

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Never thought of hostels, will have a look and see what I can find along the route

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Hostels can be ok - I've stayed in loads of them, but often they're at the budget end of everything. We stayed in a hotel in Burgos, in northern Spain in 2022 where the hostel was on floor seven and the hotel the six floors below. There was a metal staircase running up the outside of the building to the hostel. Whether that was the fire escape and you could access the hostel by an interior lift I'm not sure but I hope so as it looked like a very long climb.

As a thought - which may or may not prove successful - where are you planning on travelling/camping, and in what expected weather?

Presumably your main issue is getting up and down off the ground? (or at least an air mattress a few inches thick) - and if so, some kind of cot style camp-bed is going to be preferable, which will already take up quite a lot of luggage space on bike...

If you'd don't envisage a lot of rain/cold temperatures on your trip, then perhaps consider a folding camp-bed to get you some distance off the ground (typically at least 12-14") to save you bending, in conjunction with a bivvy bag to keep the worst of the weather and any bugs off you?

Also consider how many times you might be camping vs other accommodation options (such as hostels and cheaper hotels as mentioned above), and that depending on where you plan to camp there might well be a degree of natural/manmade shelter available too - such as a covered picnic bench/seating in a campground, and trees or large rocks when wild camping - or go full Mondo Enduro style and bed-down under a bridge, in an abandoned building, or even a 'turd-strewn-culvert' at a push... ;o)

But seriously - certainly if the weather is likely to be dry, then a camp-bed and a lightweight bivvy bag might well be a solution regarding limited luggage space vs. having to bend down too far? And maybe string up a tarp overhead as some additional rain cover if required?

Jx

Also consider a hammock - there are some amazing hammocks out there, and you can set them at whatever height you want, and never need to get down to the ground. Some even have a pole/tripod setup, so you don't even need trees!

Sometimes it’s really just necessary to yield as gracefully as possible to the inevitable. My arthritis doesn’t permit sleeping on the ground unless it’s really, really important, and other ailments make hammocks impossible. I have many tents, including a 6 person “backpacking” tent which I once lived in for a summer (with 6 feet standing headroom and a tall doorway) but I wouldn’t want to carry it and a cot on a motorbike.

My camping setup is now a full-sized Ford van with an expanding bed and a 4” mattress. This allows a certain amount of luxury, but it’s a far cry from my old bivy sacks and other lightweight gear. If you’re determined, there are plenty of tall tents, cots, fat sleeping pads, and the like. But for me, travel has increasingly involved motels, hostels, and/or the van.

Tent
 

I have no clue how bad your arthrisis is.
I have replaced my heaps. And the last year before surgery. I could not get my leg over the bike. So no riding => No camping issue.

Now I have my knees.....

But the done tents are better than tunnel versions. Of course.
And I use 3 -persons tent. To have good space for sleeping and my riding gear and...

This is a very popular model
https://www.handelsboden.com/camping...ikers-original


=
The market's smoothest and most affordable motorcycle tent. The waterproof 4BIKERS tent is erected in less than 30 seconds. Waterproof floor and mosquito net in the door. The front yard also has a floor. For three people.
=

I don't know it that would fit you ? Maybe
It is easy to set up, still standing.

You see many of them in the picture

I feel your pain. Both knees toast. Failed replacement and uncontrollable neuropathic pain.
I have been going around in circles with this for five years, to the point of depression.
I can’t help with the tent, but spent big $$ on big Agnes sleep pad and sleeping bag, part of their sleep system, and at least I am getting a decent sleep.

In the end I spent time with an occupational psychology therapist who was pretty blunt and direct. Basically, if you HAD to do a certain thing, in our case sleep in a tent, and you had no choice, could you do it.

The answer is probably yes. It’s gunna hurt, but it hurts anyway. It’s just the depth that varies. She made me watch the attached video from Life is Beautiful.

It’s hard, but changing my mindset, or accepting that pain is just pain, has let me ride Java for two weeks, and travel Japan in a tiny Kei Truck.

I have to lay down to get changed, roll out of my tent, and sit on my butt to pack things away etc. I am off for three weeks riding and camping in Japan

But I can do it. Perhaps rather than a different tent, it’s a different mindset.

It’s ok to tell me to %#$% myself lol.

https://youtu.be/dvtAUT6g6j4?si=nU3UIrWYwvsfFTAx

I hope I can do it
 

I will have my first knee replaced after summer
(October)

I have a tentative plan to ride from Sweden to Portugal via Pyrenees and the area around Picos de Europa. As a great finale before it is time for surgery and recovery. 2 times. => Crutches and no bike riding for a year.

It will hurt, but if I can do, it I will do it.
And have those memories......

Thanks for the inspiration


Life is not always easy.
And sometimes is better to accept things that you can't change than fighting.

FWIW, I had a knee replacement 5 or 6 years ago—was driving 4 days later(very cautiously), riding mountain bike in two months (ditto), skiing the next fall. Second knee replacement scheduled in 3 weeks, so I’m currently wandering around skiing and biking for all I’m worth (which isn’t as much as it once was, but still….).

A year sounds unduly pessimistic from where I sit.

To counter that, when I had my leg put back together the surgeon said I'd be able to go running in about 4 months ... it took me about 2 years to be able to walk without a limp, I still limp when I'm tired, and I can't jog more than maybe 20 meters without being in pain. The surgery was coming up on 8 years ago.

I’m sorry to hear of your ongoing experience. It sounds horrendous.

I don’t know what sort of surgery you had, but I was addressing only the previous post, which was about an upcoming knee replacement—an operation which has become very common and fairly standardized. In most cases—note the qualifier—recovery is rapid.

It is not, however, complete in the sense of returning us to full, pain-free function. My titanium and chrome steel knee still hurts sometimes, has a restricted range, and doesn’t like being kneeled on. Jogging, even for 20 meters, is entirely out of the question. But I’m headed in for the same procedure on my other knee because it’s so much better than the alternative.

I don’t expect that any selection of gear (tents, hammocks, sleeping pads, cots) OR surgeries will allow me to return to camping comfortably in the manner I used to. I’ll just keep trying to adapt as best I can to new realities and continue to pursue what’s fulfilling in life….while complaining a lot about how everything hurts and nothing works the way it’s supposed to.

It was insertion of a metal rod to sort out a messily broken tibia, for which they had to move stuff in my (still biological) knee and then put it back again, and the knee is where the discomfort and instability is ... anyway, the point I was trying to make is that different people heal at different rates and sometimes get different surgery outcomes, your reply came off as a bit flippant

Consider a scooter at some point
 

Hey Eric

Be aware that there is reduced flex of the knee after surgery which normally maxes out at 125deg.

A normal knee is 140 to 145 deg.

In my case I was around 120 deg. This puts my knee at around the max flex when on many if not most adventure bikes, even the big ones.

I am 174cm tall so I think average ish for a male. I couldn’t ride my GSA anymore, even after adding wunderlich lowered foot pegs. Of course we are all different leg lengths etc so it’s not across the board for everyone.

I now hire scooters (ADV150 etc) when I travel, and a Speedmaster 1200 at home. I am hoping I can pull off buying a Honda X-Adv750 in Japan, getting it registered there, touring for five months, then shipping it home.

I’d rather have another GSA, but if Ted Simon rides a scooter, it’s good enough for me!

this is your solution, my friend

Is that a product or home made?
Got a link?
Thanks

Google for any of these to also see alternatives for an 'off-the-floor' tent cot

Kamp-Rite Double Tent Cot
Tangkula 2-Person Tent Cot
Ozark Trail 2-Person Cot Tent