Cycling UK Forum

Have now seen the Naturehike Cloud Up 1 Upgrade on Amazon. Similar design to the BA Fly Creek, far fewer bells and whistles of course and a bit heavier (300g?), not quite as small a pack size and obviously no shortstick option. Being Naturehike & Amazon its a bit difficult to get the exact spec as it seems to vary advert to advert. However, it is about £110 with the groundsheet included, and comes it green.
There's also the Naturehike "cycling" tent also known as the Spider 1, which has slightly shorter pole sections, a centre door, is taller and I suspect slightly heavier than the CloudUp due to 210T material rather than 20D, and also comes in green for the modest sum of £130.

As this is my second tent - my first is the MSR Hubba Hubba - for faster lighter bikepacking with shorter trips, I'm attracted to this but wary of cheap tents. No good if it annoys you more than it pleases you.

Anyone have any experience of the Naturehike tents? Snog/marry/avoid?

Really like the Hilly sand colour. And in this time of global warming, maybe sand will blend in much more than green.
Love the Enan. However I believe the pole sections are quite long which may not work on my super small bike. Its about double what I'd want to pay, unless one just happened to drop into my lap at a very hard to resist price. Anyone know of

As Bmblzzz says, maybe I should get a tent that does most of what I want to do most of the time which is camping on sites, and not worry too much about the (very) odd wild camp.

Lots of interesting - and conflicting - opinions there!
Insect attractiveness seems to be a thing, although I read that mosquitoes are attached to dark colours, so you can't win. I don't mind being attractive to butterflies.

I like Pete's advice that colour shouldn't necessarily lead the decision of which tent, look other features first. The Fly Creek does unfortunately seem to hit the nail dead on the head with regards to design and functionality, and I can't find any other make doing something similar in a less "obvious" colour.

Am looking for a small lightweight 1 person tent for bikepacking for a small lightweight person. Ideally weighing around the kilo mark, but small pack size is more important as my bike is very small. I camp mostly on sites (I feel safer) but have been known to do the odd wild camp very occasionally ie about once a year. I don't camp all year round so a three-season is very adequate.

I'm tending towards (but not set on) the "spine and Y" configuration like the Nemo Hornet and the Big Agnes Fly Creek. The Hornet I'm attracted by the tiny pack size, low weight, good interior space and OSMO fabric but put off by the high cut fly mostly because I think rain might get under. The BA Fly Creek looks very good and fulfills most if not all of my requirements, but main problem is the colour - the bikepacking short pole version seems to only come in yellow.
There is an argument to say that if you're wild camping it's "pitch after dusk and strike a dawn", so who's going to see it. Does the colour matter?

What else would you suggest? I've tried the Wild Country Zephyros and seem to be incapable of pitching this without it looking like a hammock, so am shying away from tunnel tents although others may be different. I'd like a tent that can pitch outer first or both together but this may be a compromise point.

Thanks for your suggestions.

For anyone wondering how this turned out, I did stuff the inner and fly separately in their own 5L bags and put these in a Restrap handlebar bag. I carried the poles separately strapped to a cargo cage the Tailfin rack. Miraculously due to excellent weather the tent was dry each morning and so this became a non-issue.
Deeply in love with this tent, its spacious and seems to dislike condensation. My only reservations are that the pole sections are a bit long, and its not exactly the smallest pack in the bikepacking world. But I'm going to forgive it.

I seem to have acquired a Wild Country Micro-Coshee which I'll probably take as a "glorified bivvy" on my forth coming Kernow way trip. Will be trying to stuff that too!

Thanks all for your wisdom and suggestions.
As you all probably know, pitching and storing inner and outer together simply isn't an option with this tent, but my friend and I can successfully pitch our tents in about 3 to 5 minutes (each!). My first tent, a Wild Country Zephyros, is a tunnel tents that does pitch together but quite honestly I spent so much time faffing about trying to got the ridgeline straight and the fly taught, that in the end it simply wasn't any sort of advantage. And waking up in the morning with the tent looking more like a hammock than a tent is an experience not to be repeated.

After much packing and re-packing I have decided this:
stuff the inner and the outer separately into one 5L fork bag. Use a drybag for one of them if in the slightest wet, probably for the wet one.
Using a bottomless cargo cage, strap the poles onto the upright of the Tailfin rack, with the pegs inside the same bag, and placed in a drybag or tough outer bag to avoid snags on gorse etc.

I'm taking a surplus of Voile straps, so I'll have some scope for experimentation along the way.

Thanks everyone for your suggestions and comments. By the time I get to the Lake District I'll have it all figured out!

Thanks very much for your responses. some very useful info there.
My main takeaways so far: Yes do pack inner, outer, poles and pegs separately, with the inner and outer in their own truly waterproof bags, and take a microfibre cloth for morning wipe downs. Don't be frightened to give the (yes siliconised) fly a good shake and don't underestimate the usefulness of the bike as a drying rack.
The poles on this tent are quite long so will probably do better along the underside of the top tube or strapped to an upright of the rear (Tailfin) rack, or if there is enough room, under the Tailfin.

For some reason I'm having difficulty getting my head round not putting everything back in the bag it came in. Just force of habit I guess, will overcome by practicing packing into multiple bags.

The Hubba Hubba has a ventilation window at each end which are held open by ~6 inch non-removeable semi-rigid supports. Does anyone know if I stuff this tent, might they get damaged?

On the basis that there's nothing new under the sun, someone reading this probably has experience of this and could you please share your wisdom?

I have an MSR Hubba Hubba NX, which I have used once on an overnight stop while car camping. I'm doing a longer bikepacking tour in the next few weeks, about 9 days ride, and this highly livable tent is my "portable palace of choice". Now, this being the UK, its highly probable that in the morning the rainfly will be wet when I want to pack it. The question is: whats the best way to deal with a soggy rainfly?
So far I have rolled both the tent inner and outer and packed them very much as it came in the original bag. But I see elsewhere that some folk recommend stuffing the two parts separately into 2 stuff sacks, keeping the inner dry and away from the outer. This also gives the opportunity to distribute the package about the bike in multiple locations, say one stuffsack in each fork bag, rather than sling it across the handlebars - my hardtail bike is very small and handlebar harness type solutions don't work that well, they tend to droop on the wheel.
Has anyone ever done this? Caveats? Bad idea?

Thanks everybody for your advice.
I'm tending towards getting it completely resprayed as my Orbit is one of those with the more dodgy paintwork. For example, on the forks the top layer has disbonded in largish flakes to reveal the grey primer below. It's not a diy job for me - I'd rather spend time riding than painting. So - should I get it powder coated or stove enamelled? And where can I get it done? A good professional job seems to be more important than the powder/enamel debate, but I haven't seen any recommends for my part of the world. I'm in Surrey.

I have a 22 year old Orbit Gold Medal sitting in my garage, which I'd like to restore to a ridable state. It's had no attention for the last 15 years or so, one or two bits have been robbed for other bikes and I need to replace some of the bits for more comfort in my old age. I'm not looking to put it back to an authentic "shop-floor" finish but I'd like it to be a smart bike for my 13 mile commute and weekend road day rides, and who knows, maybe that elusive End-to-End at some point in the future?

Looking at the frame it appears to have developed about a dozen rust spots and a number of chips down to the grey primer. These are in the sorts of places you would expected on a bike that's been in the family garage for so long - top tube, stays, forks. I'm thinking about getting it resprayed as I think if I just patch each spot it'll end up looking a bit of a dog's dinner. I've not done anything like this before so perhaps people can give me some advice on how to proceed.

Anyone recommend any frame resprayers, preferably in Surrey/home counties/south England? Especially ones who can be patient with people who know nothing about this?
I understand that frames are shot-blasted before respray. Would this deal with the rust or would I have to have removed it all it off first?
Does the frame have to be totally stripped-down before respray, including headset and bottom bracket out ?
Does the headset have to be re-faced after spraying (obviously not of left in)?

Given my obvious level of ignorance on this subject, is this a really bad idea and I should just give up and go buy a new bike?