Snugpak ionosphere

Specifically for cycle touring subjects & questions
User avatar
Gattonero
Posts: 3730
Joined: 31 Jan 2016, 1:35pm
Location: London

Re: Snugpak ionosphere

Post by Gattonero »

mercalia wrote:"You can easily cook while laying on one side of your body"
hardly a virtue name any tent that you cant do that ?

looks like a coffin and having to cook while lying down says it all, I think radek is a masochist or a midget


Each to their own, though I disagree with the setup (relatively heavy for little living space) I won't call the fella "a masochist/midget" :?
It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best,
since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them.
Thus you remember them as they actually are...
User avatar
Gattonero
Posts: 3730
Joined: 31 Jan 2016, 1:35pm
Location: London

Re: Snugpak ionosphere

Post by Gattonero »

radek wrote:So the tent went with me for winter bicycle touring :) A quick review bellow: ...

Bad:
- the compression sack looks cool but it is made from rubbish material which developed a small hole due to rubbing over the handlebar... ...


Looks like it's made of ripstop nylon, to be fair almost all the materials will wear down and get holes if not secured properly, even 500D Cordura will wear down.
The solution is to either using a harness, or using a small reinforcement in the pack+some very good straps that won't make the bag move: if the bag moves all the time, you get a hole, there's no escape from that.
It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best,
since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them.
Thus you remember them as they actually are...
User avatar
pjclinch
Posts: 5458
Joined: 29 Oct 2007, 2:32pm
Location: Dundee, Scotland
Contact:

Re: Snugpak ionosphere

Post by pjclinch »

Gattonero wrote:
The problem with Silnylon is that it looks good and nicely tight when you pitch, but will sag when the fabric gets the moisture/rain/condensation, so in the morning after is more likely the the CF version will be a lot better in terms of quality of the pitch.
Stretch of the fabric can be a good thing when pitching, but not after a few hours in the rain.


I'd suggest not being able to get a good pitch to start with is more of a problem. Sagging isn't welcome, but doesn't stop the tent from fitting the pitch like something which zero stretch might. It might not look pretty, but that doesn't stop people inside being dry and warm. No stretch, OTOH, may compromise a good pitch to start with. I'm going with Chris T's report here, but if you can't trust him on experience-based outdoor equipment reporting, whom can you trust?

Gattonero wrote:And I'd say that a suitable site for pitching right is more a problem for walkers, whom can only do so many miles. For the cyclist, to ride another 3 miles for a better camping spot it's mostly a quick and easy task.


I'd put it the other way around. Walkers are inherently more mobile at small scales so can target likely areas (as opposed to linear tracks through areas) far more easily than a cyclist. There's typically a lot more variation in a hectare of rural land than along 3km of track or road.

Pete.
Often seen riding a bike around Dundee...
User avatar
Gattonero
Posts: 3730
Joined: 31 Jan 2016, 1:35pm
Location: London

Re: Snugpak ionosphere

Post by Gattonero »

You are not putting into accounts the tent design: if using a material like Cuben, you cannot rely on fabric tension but you have to rely on pole tension.
Catenary-cuts can keep the Cuben tight like Silnylon, and line-locks do allow a certain degree off set to the peg, and get the tension as it should.

Walkers can choose different journeys from what a cyclist would, we're talking off-road here not Cycle Touring on road, right? The latter, is obviously less prepared to get off the tarmac and may struggle a lot when scrambling, but then it's not a good idea to go on bridleways and remote areas with 700x25mm tyres and road-specific shoes.
Wild-camping needs a discreete place, one hectare of rural land can be all in plain sight, and walking a mile takes a lot longer than cycling 3 miles (unless one was completely unprepared and is looking for wild-camping while riding up on a climb)
It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best,
since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them.
Thus you remember them as they actually are...
User avatar
Sweep
Posts: 8441
Joined: 20 Oct 2011, 4:57pm
Location: London

Re: Snugpak ionosphere

Post by Sweep »

Obviously I haven't tried it yet but a few quick responses to some of the points above.

and separately as I'm not too good at the multiquote thing on my tab.
Sweep
User avatar
Sweep
Posts: 8441
Joined: 20 Oct 2011, 4:57pm
Location: London

Re: Snugpak ionosphere

Post by Sweep »

NATURAL ANKLING wrote:Hi,
My opinion-
For the weight I would require more sitting height.
Anything less than 70 cm I would describe to be a bivy bag, type of thing.
I will stick to my Spitfire Eureka and My nice roomy Tiger Paws.

Each to their own natural but I have never understood this thing about sitting in a cycle touring tent if alone. I use the tent for sleeping in and reading/snacking, contemplating life as the rain blasts the outside with me all snug. I don't sit up in bed at home so why would I want to when camping? Do some tents come with headboards?

Not an objection of yours I know, but I also don't cook inside any tents. Not even sitting inside the tent with the stove outside. Asking for trouble in my view.

On the bivi thing I intend to use this in circumstances in which I would otherwise be bivvying - freecamping, short trips of no more than 2 to 3 days. Just arrive late/leave early/move on sort of thing.

It is precisely the lack of height which I like. A few days ago I saw a small cheaper tent from a big manufacturer. Got inside it but even at my modest height it was too small - My feet would be touching the bottom of the tent with gawd knows what consequences for moisture entering the tent. But it was pretty high at the head end. Which, in my personal view was not needed and would just make me more visible.
Sweep
User avatar
NATURAL ANKLING
Posts: 13780
Joined: 24 Oct 2012, 10:43pm
Location: English Riviera

Re: Snugpak ionosphere

Post by NATURAL ANKLING »

Hi,
Sitting height means that you can comfortably sit up, eat, and get dressed, pack all your gear into bags etc, with the rain pouring down outside, how can that be done laying down / how do you do that with limited height ?

Also when you can sit up you easily enter to a sitting position and lastly take off shoes as feet are outside.
Exiting means sitting and putting shoes on with feet out of tent, then just stand up.
With low sitting height how do you do that?
If you crawl then what are you doing with shoes and muddy hands ?
Getting In
Getting In

Getting Out
Getting Out


Just pointing out some practical facts.
I don't normally cook inside, and only cook when weather permits, I have in the past in a two man tent but its always dangerous in a closed space, not so much for fire but simply losing your overnight shelter, also I have taken to a sold fuel burner for simplicity and compactness, lightweight to, which is best done outside.

I as I mentioned in earlier posts, I too require a lighter simpler shelter, wind and rain proof to just climb into at end of day.
Probably going to make up something out of some old tents I have, unless I can afford the £200 plus for some I have seen online.........but they all aren't lightweight, I want sub 1KG other wise its my 1.5 kg tent?
NA Thinks Just End 2 End Return + Bivvy - Some day Soon I hope
You'll Still Find Me At The Top Of A Hill
Please forgive the poor Grammar I blame it on my mobile and phat thinkers.
User avatar
Gattonero
Posts: 3730
Joined: 31 Jan 2016, 1:35pm
Location: London

Re: Snugpak ionosphere

Post by Gattonero »

Again, I agree with the reply above, regarding how unpractical is to get in-out that shelter. It makes me more and more convinced that a simple tarp put over an upside-down bike is more human-friendly, easier to put up, lighter and smaller to carry
It is by riding a bicycle that you learn the contours of a country best,
since you have to sweat up the hills and coast down them.
Thus you remember them as they actually are...
User avatar
Sweep
Posts: 8441
Joined: 20 Oct 2011, 4:57pm
Location: London

Re: Snugpak ionosphere

Post by Sweep »

Thanks for the reply natural ankling. Some good points you make. Will see how I get on and try to report back.

And your reply has also encouraged me to hang on to my Coleman cobra 2.

That does have a high head end. It will be an interesting compare and contrast for the ionosphere.
Sweep
User avatar
pjclinch
Posts: 5458
Joined: 29 Oct 2007, 2:32pm
Location: Dundee, Scotland
Contact:

Re: Snugpak ionosphere

Post by pjclinch »

Gattonero wrote:You are not putting into accounts the tent design: if using a material like Cuben, you cannot rely on fabric tension but you have to rely on pole tension.
Catenary-cuts can keep the Cuben tight like Silnylon, and line-locks do allow a certain degree off set to the peg, and get the tension as it should.


Your problem hits you on any non-stretchy design if the ground isn't flat: you have a 3D shape that assumes a flat bottom, but if you don' have that then no end of clever fabric cuts and guying will get a non-stretchy shape to be anything other than what it is. So that's often not a problem on a formal campsite, but is often one on wild sites (which is of course where CT and pals were finding pitching otherwise similar Trailstars was not quite as similar as they'd expected).

Gattonero wrote:Walkers can choose different journeys from what a cyclist would, we're talking off-road here not Cycle Touring on road, right? The latter, is obviously less prepared to get off the tarmac and may struggle a lot when scrambling, but then it's not a good idea to go on bridleways and remote areas with 700x25mm tyres and road-specific shoes.
Wild-camping needs a discreete place, one hectare of rural land can be all in plain sight, and walking a mile takes a lot longer than cycling 3 miles (unless one was completely unprepared and is looking for wild-camping while riding up on a climb)


I don't think many people tour on 25mm tyres with Look cleats, even purely on road. Most touring bikes, including my recumbent, are quite capable of taking in unsurfaced tracks. Even mountain bikes, however, will have a lot of trouble going through untracked heather or low bracken (or even plain long grass) that's really not much of an issue on foot.
Wild camping may or may not need a discrete place. These were not discrete, and it wasn't a problem.

Image
Image
Often seen riding a bike around Dundee...
User avatar
Sweep
Posts: 8441
Joined: 20 Oct 2011, 4:57pm
Location: London

Re: Snugpak ionosphere

Post by Sweep »

pjclinch wrote:Wild camping may or may not need a discrete place.

g]


Tis true. I have free camped next to a dirty great big red car in scotland in the past. Few to no folk around.

Have also bivvied at the edge of a great big open field. Got there by walking through a big gate from the road, walk up the hedgeline a bit and totally invisible from passing cars. It's for this second scenario in particular that I have bought the ionosphere.
Sweep
User avatar
NATURAL ANKLING
Posts: 13780
Joined: 24 Oct 2012, 10:43pm
Location: English Riviera

Re: Snugpak ionosphere

Post by NATURAL ANKLING »

Attachments
backpackin orange.jpg
NA Thinks Just End 2 End Return + Bivvy - Some day Soon I hope
You'll Still Find Me At The Top Of A Hill
Please forgive the poor Grammar I blame it on my mobile and phat thinkers.
User avatar
Sweep
Posts: 8441
Joined: 20 Oct 2011, 4:57pm
Location: London

Re: Snugpak ionosphere

Post by Sweep »

A picture is not necessarily worth a thousand words natural.

For a pic is a pic and we are individuals with individual views, expertise, experiences and preferences.

What is/are your point/s?

Are you suggesting that the first is actually the Ionosphere?

In any case there would be shipping from the US to pay, possible customs and tax issues. And the listing points out that they may not even ship to the UK.

The second tent. The, er, "monsoon".

I don't think it would be a good idea to get in and out of that in anything like a monsoon. I have a couple of tents with that sort of side opening, it is an interesting design, but I don't think you need much imagination to see what would happen if you opened that great big picture window door in heavy rain.

And yes a very nice shade of blue but I don't think it exactly lends itself to "hidden in plain sight". Not unless you are afloat on the briny blue.

By the way, I didn't pay anything like the published RRP for my yet to arrive Ionosphere. It cost £102. Including shipping.

edit -I see the last one is also in the states. But unless I'm suffering very badly from last night it appears to be orange. Same point as above. I don't have a single orange tent and won't be getting one. Their main purpose to me seems to be a certain pronounced pessimism about the outcome of a country cycling trip, very probably involving being picked off a mountainside by a guy on a winch dangling from a helicopter.
Sweep
User avatar
Sweep
Posts: 8441
Joined: 20 Oct 2011, 4:57pm
Location: London

Re: Snugpak ionosphere

Post by Sweep »

PS:

US vid of one of those tents I think.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQKA4eXK5Jw
Sweep
User avatar
NATURAL ANKLING
Posts: 13780
Joined: 24 Oct 2012, 10:43pm
Location: English Riviera

Re: Snugpak ionosphere

Post by NATURAL ANKLING »

Hi,
None of the pictures or colour were meant to do anything other than give an alternative similar design.
The fact that I posted what I posted was because I could not find all the info in one spot, so I just laid out several from different sites.
The wieght is some what similar to ionosphere I think.

The names etc were just as I found them, that's all.
Sorry if you thought I was having a go, not my thought or intension at all even though I posted late last night.

I am looking and thinking to come up with a design that will fit all, and be compact, lightweight and stealth, easy to erect in bad weather etc.............mission on for me in 2018.
Happy new year to all.
Started making tents in my garden some 45 years ago out of blankets hand sewn by me :)
NA Thinks Just End 2 End Return + Bivvy - Some day Soon I hope
You'll Still Find Me At The Top Of A Hill
Please forgive the poor Grammar I blame it on my mobile and phat thinkers.
Post Reply