rocks
Registered user
Following a camping trip last year, I have come to realize my beloved North Face Starburst 2 man 3 season tent was now ageing a little and so it was time to search for a modern replacement.
Having looked at the Terra nova Quasars and North Face tents, I decided none had the head room for a 6'3" tall biker with an assortment of panniers and travelling gear, who liked to sit up and read before bedding down for the night.
My tent buying philosophy is to buy better than you need, as no one can predict the weather or when you may need to pitch camp whilst traveling.
The starburst was rated as a four season backpacking tent and gave great service and never got me wet once, despite the north wales weather trying its best on a few occasions. However modern 4 season tents are very low profile for use on exposed mountain sides, reducing wind shear, resulting in a low internal height which is a pain if your over 6' and like to sit up and move about.
I was looking for a tent with an internal height of between 1.20 to 1.40m
whilst still being small enough for bike and foot transport yet weather worthy enough to withstand prolonged periods of rain and strong winds.
Well following some debate here and recommendations
I decided to order an Orion Exped 2 Man tent from Gear Zone.
The tent arrived today.. Despite parcelines best efforts
we wound up collecting it from Abergele depot..sadly I doubt I will order from gear zone again despite a good phone response, their choice of delivery company is a poor one imo.
Well the tent:
This is what you get :
A side openning tent bag. A pole bag containing poles. A peg bag contain pegs ( 12 standard ali pegs, 6 reinforced hard ground ali pegs, Tent repair material for fly, ground sheet and inner tent, sticky backed for fast field repair. A pole repair/section and 6 spare reflective guy-lines which come in little yellow mesh bags that act as warning flags when pitched and store the lines when not in use. (There are also several already attached to the fly too). In addition to thise you also get two spare zips, something new for me with a tent. And Not a tube of silicone seal in sight..lol..
The tent comes rolled up with the inner and fly pitching as one (both pre attached using toggles and loops, simple and effective). The fly and inner can both be pitched separately depending on your needs.
Pegs etc straight out of the bag.
Pole straight out of the bag with their bag. Dac featherlite aluminium poles.
Pegs and spares straight out of their bag. A good selection. The pegs are very good quality, with same hardground pegs that north face provide with their modern tents.
The spares impressed me considerably, especially the guy-lines and their little bags. The guylines are black and silver paratype cord with a new toggle design I haven’t used before. But the locking system looks easy and simple to work. The silver in the para-cord material is reflective meaning you shouldn’t get too many people walking into your guy-lines at nights on busy camp sites.
The tent should look like this when pitched but I haven’t had the chance yet to play with it.
The tent is FREE standing, meaning its easy to move and alter position for wind etc as well as only having three poles should be easy and quick to put up.
If people are interested I will write a full review of its performance, good or bad as a motorcycling tent. Certainly was recommended to me and the initial views of quality etc are promising.
If you are after a 4 season tent at a bargain price then :
http://www.gear-zone.co.uk/eshop/Exped-Orion.html
Are worth a try if your able to able to collect your parcels from 8.30am to 5.30pm as that’s parcelines standard delivery time. Otherwise it is extra money.
The only other UK suppliers I found were :
http://www.withingtoncycles.co.uk/product.php?id=2315&node_id=5606
Withingtongs are a cycle shop in Manchester and the guy on the phone was very nice. Though their price was higher than Gear zone.
Also our friends at:
http://www.bfc.eclipse.co.uk/
Who also do a lot of other good touring kit and though I wasn’t able to get in touch with them, they came recommended from a few people.
For your reference the Exped website is here : www.exped.com check out the photos on each tent,very impressive. Nice to see a company not afraid to show their tents being used for a change rather than studio shots.
Having looked at the Terra nova Quasars and North Face tents, I decided none had the head room for a 6'3" tall biker with an assortment of panniers and travelling gear, who liked to sit up and read before bedding down for the night.
My tent buying philosophy is to buy better than you need, as no one can predict the weather or when you may need to pitch camp whilst traveling.
The starburst was rated as a four season backpacking tent and gave great service and never got me wet once, despite the north wales weather trying its best on a few occasions. However modern 4 season tents are very low profile for use on exposed mountain sides, reducing wind shear, resulting in a low internal height which is a pain if your over 6' and like to sit up and move about.
I was looking for a tent with an internal height of between 1.20 to 1.40m
whilst still being small enough for bike and foot transport yet weather worthy enough to withstand prolonged periods of rain and strong winds.
Well following some debate here and recommendations
I decided to order an Orion Exped 2 Man tent from Gear Zone.
The tent arrived today.. Despite parcelines best efforts
we wound up collecting it from Abergele depot..sadly I doubt I will order from gear zone again despite a good phone response, their choice of delivery company is a poor one imo. Well the tent:
This is what you get :
A side openning tent bag. A pole bag containing poles. A peg bag contain pegs ( 12 standard ali pegs, 6 reinforced hard ground ali pegs, Tent repair material for fly, ground sheet and inner tent, sticky backed for fast field repair. A pole repair/section and 6 spare reflective guy-lines which come in little yellow mesh bags that act as warning flags when pitched and store the lines when not in use. (There are also several already attached to the fly too). In addition to thise you also get two spare zips, something new for me with a tent. And Not a tube of silicone seal in sight..lol..
The tent comes rolled up with the inner and fly pitching as one (both pre attached using toggles and loops, simple and effective). The fly and inner can both be pitched separately depending on your needs.
Pegs etc straight out of the bag.
Pole straight out of the bag with their bag. Dac featherlite aluminium poles.
Pegs and spares straight out of their bag. A good selection. The pegs are very good quality, with same hardground pegs that north face provide with their modern tents.
The spares impressed me considerably, especially the guy-lines and their little bags. The guylines are black and silver paratype cord with a new toggle design I haven’t used before. But the locking system looks easy and simple to work. The silver in the para-cord material is reflective meaning you shouldn’t get too many people walking into your guy-lines at nights on busy camp sites.
The tent should look like this when pitched but I haven’t had the chance yet to play with it.
The tent is FREE standing, meaning its easy to move and alter position for wind etc as well as only having three poles should be easy and quick to put up.
If people are interested I will write a full review of its performance, good or bad as a motorcycling tent. Certainly was recommended to me and the initial views of quality etc are promising.
If you are after a 4 season tent at a bargain price then :
http://www.gear-zone.co.uk/eshop/Exped-Orion.html
Are worth a try if your able to able to collect your parcels from 8.30am to 5.30pm as that’s parcelines standard delivery time. Otherwise it is extra money.
The only other UK suppliers I found were :
http://www.withingtoncycles.co.uk/product.php?id=2315&node_id=5606
Withingtongs are a cycle shop in Manchester and the guy on the phone was very nice. Though their price was higher than Gear zone.
Also our friends at:
http://www.bfc.eclipse.co.uk/
Who also do a lot of other good touring kit and though I wasn’t able to get in touch with them, they came recommended from a few people.
For your reference the Exped website is here : www.exped.com check out the photos on each tent,very impressive. Nice to see a company not afraid to show their tents being used for a change rather than studio shots.
