Half decent tent?

Peak

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Can anyone recommend me a half decent tent? I'm after a large one man / small two man, it needs to be compact enough not to take up too much room on the bike. Oh and I don't want to pay silly money!

Thanks in advance:thumb
 
How long will it be pitched for, in what conditions, and how frequently will it be pitched?

I have the Coleman Phact X2 for weekends, but took a Vaude Bivi (4 mins to set up, world-proof) between here and Mongolia. Benefit of the latter is the ease of quick set up and faster pack-up, thought only space for you and maybe a small rucksack inside - around 800 grammes.
 
Just got a Coleman Phad X2. Highly recommended.

It's got the materials of those "technical" tents but the layout of a leisure tent. It packs small enough to fit in your panniers and weighs 3.45kg.
 
Whats half decent?
Bought a shite quick erect jobbie for the family for a June overnight trip and found myself in the midst of a force7 with driving rain.
8 years ago wife goes to buy a tent from Blacks. Finds two apparently identical about the size she wants. One is £60, one is £120, whats the difference she says, 'this one is more waterproof than that one'. The concept of a not waterproof tent was one she was not willing to entertain. So off to specialist supplier, picks a Vaude (£250) and the man says thats a perfect campsite tent, so we got a MacPac (on sale at £300). And she has never regretted it. But then we have used it in extreme places in extreme conditions.

To even have a chance of giving you reasoned advice we would need to have a lot more info about intended use and budget.

Alternatively, you could just post sommat so vague that every man and woman wat has a tent gets to tell you how wonderful it is.
 
Whats half decent?
Bought a shite quick erect jobbie for the family for a June overnight trip and found myself in the midst of a force7 with driving rain.
8 years ago wife goes to buy a tent from Blacks. Finds two apparently identical about the size she wants. One is £60, one is £120, whats the difference she says, 'this one is more waterproof than that one'. The concept of a not waterproof tent was one she was not willing to entertain. So off to specialist supplier, picks a Vaude (£250) and the man says thats a perfect campsite tent, so we got a MacPac (on sale at £300). And she has never regretted it. But then we have used it in extreme places in extreme conditions.

To even have a chance of giving you reasoned advice we would need to have a lot more info about intended use and budget.

Alternatively, you could just post sommat so vague that every man and woman wat has a tent gets to tell you how wonderful it is.

Well I'm not planning on anything extereme. I have booked time off in September and I'm going to Croatia, the plan is to camp to keep the costs low. I guess I'm looking for a value for money tent, I don't do much camping so £200-£300 tents are out. I've found in the past one man tents to be just on the small side so two man is ideal as my girlfriend may want to come with me on future trips.

As I'm on the bike I'd like it to be fairly compact. Easy to erect and pack away is essential.

If you can give me that for around £100 I'm happy :aidan
 
If you are touring and camping in a different place every night then the speed at which it goes up and comes down (ooh err missus :ymca) becomes really important. For that you either need a Khyam biker or an expensive tent, cheap ones take longer for all sorts of reasons.

If you want to travel two up and carry the tent in your panniers then size is an issue. That means you need an expensive tent or a small tent.

Basically you need an expensive tent :eek
 
The Khyam Biker is neither light nor compact.

Something like what Intermediate is suggesting is about as good as you're going to get for your budget, Coleman's tend to use decent materials and have high headrating (waterproof-ness) for the higher end of budget leisure tents which is what they are.

Small enough for a bike but given its erected size not exactly light, but buy one and with the change buy some decent tent pegs, the ones that come with it are neither use nor ornament.
 
Khyam 'Eiger', two man tent, £89, quick to erect but too big to fit into panniers. Fine to lash across the back of the dual seat. At the HU meeting I saw an smallish Khyam tent where the poles collapsed down into four sections (instead of the three of the 'Eiger') so this may be OK for you. BTW if two of you are sharing, you'll usually need a three man tent as a rule.

PS It seems the 'Eiger' is now the 'Ranger' at £111 - same tent though.

http://www.khyam.co.uk/video.asp?video=ranger&product=Ranger&width=640&height=480
 
Just checked out the Coleman Phad X2. Looks a nice tent and one on ebay at £99. :thumb2
 
Now that IS an expensive tent :eek:

Worth every penny though, you never appreciate where the money goes until you have one. :thumb2


However expensive it is .. you still had to wrap it up in the wet back into its tiny bag to strap onto the bike.


OR you could just throw the whole lot in the back of the CAR :dabone
 
generally speaking you get what you pay for with tents. For croatia you will need good ventilation and fly/mosquito netting.try to buy a tent that you can see set up. The more expensive the tent the more durable it usually is . Its easy to make a waterproof tent but the trick is to get rid of condensation. Usualy a 2 skin tent is best. You can get tents that fit in a big top box, I am not aware or one which goes in a standard pannier though.(Edit It seems the one intermediate has does)
i would get as good a quality as your budget will stretch to and i would seriously consider second hand.
Hope you have a good trip, I like croatia although i think bosnia is better!
 
Thanks for all the advice guys, going tent shopping over the weekend to see how they look when they are put up! :beerjug:
 


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