A tent for Scotland : August : bikepacking : 2 man/lightweight

[Broonie06]

Hullo, I'm doing a week's cycle from Oban to Thurso and wild camping along the way (end of August). What tent (2 man/lightweight) would you recommend for bikepacking? Bearing in mind, this is West Coast of Scotland so weather could be all four season's!!
Cheers,
Sarah

[Paulatic]

Is it for two people or just yourself?

[Rmr25]

Hullo, I'm doing a week's cycle from Oban to Thurso and wild camping along the way (end of August). What tent (2 man/lightweight) would you recommend for bikepacking? Bearing in mind, this is West Coast of Scotland so weather could be all four season's!!
Cheers,
Sarah

If you're on a budget and it's not going to get a lot of use after this trip I would have a look at the Vango range.

[Jdsk]

For your trip I'd greatly value good protection against midges and a big porch or two porches.

Jonathan

[matt2matt2002]

Buy cheap, buy twice. But then if you're only going once. Buy cheap.
MSR Hubba Hubba NX2 for me.
Not cheap. I camp a lot.

[bikepacker]

This question arises quite often on this forum. Generally it really comes down to the potential use and budget. If you are only doing the one tour most of the cheaper makers will have tents to suit. Vango as previously stated, (there was one advertised on this forum a few weeks ago) Robens and Coleman all have good quality low budget tents. If you want the lightest for touring plus being best suited to the West Coast elements, then you can spend up to £1000. My preference after owning or testing over 30 lightweight tents, is still Hilleberg.

[Broonie06]

Thanks for the above folks - we're spoilt for choice re tent's! Looking at buying the Hubba Hubba NX2. Yes midges are a pain but that's part of the "Scottish elements" to wild camping....!

[PaulaT]

You might want to avoid tents which pitch inner first.They're not the best for pitching or breaking camp in the rain.

[bikerwaser]

I used this on a bikepacking tour of the NC 500 in the Highlands a couple of years ago.

It's a Berguas 3.1 pro. It wasn't very expensive compared to some others I was looking at the did a similar job.

It stood up faultlessly in the Scottish weather.
On one occasion I was getting battered by extremely strong winds and hard rain for hours.
By morning the ground below my tent was totally saturated and there was standing water here and there but I was totally dry inside.

Here's a video I made when I first got it , so before the trip:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EUCE9v6Lavg

[Paulatic]

Just finished a 2nd tour using a Berghaus Peak 3.1 and find it ideal for my needs. The porch holds 4 panniers and smelly shoes easily. Inside is roomy enough for me at 6’ and can also sit upright.
As with @ bikewaser's experience one extremely windy night on Lewis last year it never moved an inch.

[simonineaston]

Usual checklist will guide towards a suitable tent, to wit: season of use (2, 3, 3 plus or full 4), type (tunnel, dome or geo), volume based on no. of users (rule of thumb is +1 if you value space), type of vestibule (small, medium or large), weight (bearing in mind it''s serving 2 users), and finally, price. Answer all the above and you pretty much whittle down choice to a handful.
If you do price first, you can move towards a maker. Most makers have some sort of tent choosing pages on their websites, for example:
* Blacks
* MSR
* Hilleberg
Of course, using the tent choosers on any given website doesn't mean you have to go ahead and buy it, but it does help you build a picture of the sort of tent that'll work best for you... for example you might end up deciding that Hilleberg's Nallo 3 GT would be great, but it's too dear, so you can a) look out for a second hand one (although in the current climate, all the good stuff gets snapped up v. quick) and / or b) scour the web for an equivalent "4 season, 3 person, 3 pole, tunnel tent-with-large-vestibule".

[simonineaston]

There's a tough tent on offer here...

[hamster]

Cheap but still good performance: Wild Country Zephyros 2. It's not an all-mesh inner which is too draughty for the UK in my view (IIRC the MSR is all-mesh, although other MSR inner variants exist). Beware that the Zephyos is not for the tall.

[PaulaT]

Cheap but still good performance: Wild Country Zephyros 2. It's not an all-mesh inner which is too draughty for the UK in my view (IIRC the MSR is all-mesh, although other MSR inner variants exist). Beware that the Zephyos is not for the tall.

Note that the Zepheros 2 is the same sized outer as the Zepheros 1 but with a slightly wider inner at the expense of porch space. I'm 5ft 8 and can sit up comfortable in my Zepheros 1. I think it would be OK for anyone up to 6ft. For anyone with an MSR-sized budget the "proper" Terra-nova version, the Laser Compact, might also be an option.

[willem jongman]

For cheap tents I like the better Decathlon domes. Get a three person one for two. I bought an 89 euro two person one as a solo festival tent for my son and used it a few times myself. It was fine.
In the more expensive stuff you have to distinguish outer first or inner first. The latter are indeed often designed for hot USA conditions, so they have a lot of mesh. We loved our MSR Zoic 3 last summer in Italy but would hate it in Schotland. We also have an outer first Hilleberg Nammatj and that type of tent is perfect for cold, wet and stormy weather. An alternative to Hilleberg is Norwegian Helsport. I bought a 3 person version with porch for my son forvhis revent trip to Schotland and it was excellent for that. Quality is pretty similar to Hilleberg (i.e. as good as it gets) for a rather lower price. They also have a budget Trek series.