Robens Raptor

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greencelery
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Robens Raptor

Post by greencelery »

Does any one have any experience with the Robens Raptor?
Either the old green 2015 version with nylon fly or the new brown 2017 version with polyester fly? The old version is PU on the inside Si on the outside, whereas the newer one is Si/Si.

We're looking to replace an old vango banshee to use on a long cycle tour and our main criteria was good porch space, two doors, free standing, good waterproof HH rating. Not too bothered by the weight but under 4 kg.

We've obviously considered many other possibilities to get to this point, but for most of the other popular tents (MSR hubba hubba nx or exped carina say) the materials seem too lightweight to last a year or more on the road, unless anyone can convince us otherwise.

Pretty much the only difference between the new and old robens raptor is the colour, nylon vs poly fly and and extra 130€. Is the newer polyester Si/Si fly really worth the extra cost? How badly will the nylon sag in the rain?

Cheers!
Sarah
JackRabbitSlims
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Re: Robens Raptor

Post by JackRabbitSlims »

I have the MSR Hubba Hubba NX - great tent and I highly recommend!

Haven't done 1 full year continuos, however, well over 1 year use / 27000kms through New Zealand, Tasmania / Australia, Indonesia, Netherlands, Belgium, France, Spain, Portugal, Morocco, Thailand & Laos in 2016/17......still going strong

Have recently treated with the MSR wash and restore products.....surprised how well the tent came up....looks brand new :)
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Sweep
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Re: Robens Raptor

Post by Sweep »

Hi greencelery.

You say you have done lots of research so I am assuming that you considered the Robens Lodge 2. Much discussed on here, including by me. Am a great fan of it.

If you considered it, can I ask why you plumped on the Raptor?

If you haven't, I would take a look. May be some on sale at this time of year.

It doesn't have DAC poles but the design seems to minimise pole problems. Cheap and easy to fix any pole problems on tour.

Sleeps 2 like the raptor, excellent double porches, very easy to pitch, even in the dark by a dimwit like me, essentially free standing, good for freecamping, very solid once up. Not uber light but light enough for the back of a bike.
Last edited by Sweep on 3 Feb 2018, 3:51pm, edited 2 times in total.
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horizon
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Re: Robens Raptor

Post by horizon »

greencelery wrote:We're looking to replace an old vango banshee to use on a long cycle tour and our main criteria was good porch space, two doors, free standing, good waterproof HH rating. Not too bothered by the weight but under 4 kg.



This tent seems to meet your criteria (apart from free-standing?). Did you consider it? Can you talk us through your reasoning? It's quite a hard choice!

http://www.robens.de/en/Products/tents/ ... osprey-2ex
When the pestilence strikes from the East, go far and breathe the cold air deeply. Ignore the sage, stay not indoors. Ho Ri Zon 12th Century Chinese philosopher
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Sweep
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Re: Robens Raptor

Post by Sweep »

horizon wrote:
greencelery wrote:We're looking to replace an old vango banshee to use on a long cycle tour and our main criteria was good porch space, two doors, free standing, good waterproof HH rating. Not too bothered by the weight but under 4 kg.



This tent seems to meet your criteria (apart from free-standing?). Did you consider it? Can you talk us through your reasoning? It's quite a hard choice!

http://www.robens.de/en/Products/tents/ ... osprey-2ex

I think that only has one door though horizon so it misses the OP's want list on two counts.

It's a nice design - similar to my Vango Spirit 200+ which now has a different name I'm too lazy to look up.

Eventually decided that I preferred the dome two door/porch system for various reasons I could elaborate on if anyone interested.
Last edited by Sweep on 5 Feb 2018, 7:25am, edited 1 time in total.
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pjclinch
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Re: Robens Raptor

Post by pjclinch »

greencelery wrote:Pretty much the only difference between the new and old robens raptor is the colour, nylon vs poly fly and and extra 130€. Is the newer polyester Si/Si fly really worth the extra cost? How badly will the nylon sag in the rain?


Saggy nylon is not, IME a deal breaker, but given the choice of Si/Si over Si/PU I'd much rather have the former. PU coatings heat-age and weaken whatever fabric they're applied to while silicone coatings don't, so the new fly should be a fair bit stronger in terms of tear strength. Also, Si coatings have less tendency to die in storage as far as I can tell, and they're slippier so easier to shake free of water.

About the only reason people persist in using in PU on high-ticket tents is one can tape the seams, which is a marketing bullet-point rather than a real advantage. Hot air taping weakens the fabric even more, and adds a little bulk and weight. If the seams aren't taped and haven't been made well enough to be waterproof then as much as tens of whole minutes with some sealing goop will solve that, and you'll have a better performing fly too.

Perhaps more useful than not sagging so much when wet, polyester has rather better UV performance. Silicone coatings tend to filter out the worst, but a Si coated polyester will take a lot more sunshine without weakening than a nylon one.

That looks like a nice tent to me, on paper at least. There's the Hilleberg and Staika for two-entrance freestanding and tough, but they're quite a lot more.

Pete.
Often seen riding a bike around Dundee...
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horizon
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Re: Robens Raptor

Post by horizon »

When the pestilence strikes from the East, go far and breathe the cold air deeply. Ignore the sage, stay not indoors. Ho Ri Zon 12th Century Chinese philosopher
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Gattonero
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Re: Robens Raptor

Post by Gattonero »

horizon wrote:It's an expensive tent:

https://www.tauntonleisure.com/robens-r ... gK68PD_BwE


bloody hell it is
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...
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pjclinch
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Re: Robens Raptor

Post by pjclinch »

horizon wrote:It's an expensive tent:


It looks like quite possibly a fair price for what you get though. An Allak or a Staika will cost you substantially more, and people are still willing to part with money for those.

Pete.
Last edited by pjclinch on 5 Feb 2018, 12:36pm, edited 1 time in total.
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horizon
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Re: Robens Raptor

Post by horizon »

The weight is maybe lower than an equivalent tent in their other (budget) range (Trail) so presumably the cost is in making the Raptor tent still as strong but lighter. The hydrostatic head though is lower (am I right?). This makes you wonder if strength is being sacrificed for lightness. On this basis it might be less suited to the OP's critieria despite the cost.

(I'm going on a comparison between the Voyager EX2 and Osprey as there doesn't seem to be an exact equivalent in the Trail range to the Raptor.)
When the pestilence strikes from the East, go far and breathe the cold air deeply. Ignore the sage, stay not indoors. Ho Ri Zon 12th Century Chinese philosopher
greencelery
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Re: Robens Raptor

Post by greencelery »

Hi all,
Thanks for your responses!
It is an expensive tent (much more than my old banshee for sure!), but significantly less than a Hilleberg.
We're based in Portugal so have been looking for prices in Euros. The cheapest we've found is 479€ for the brown Si/Si Poly and 349€ for the green Si/Pu Nylon.

Sweep: The Lodge 2 was the tent that made us look at Robens tents. But there were a few things that pushed us towards the Raptor:
The Raptor has a slightly taller inner height anyways and the structure of the Raptor looked like it would make the most of that height.
The pack length of the raptor is 10cm shorter (46 vs 56 I think), so would fit inside an ortleib back pannier whereas the lodge is longer so we might have to sort out an extra rack bag. (Although I'm not sure how much to trust those measurements)

The Lodge is however, a lot cheaper (175€), and was a tent that hadn't been entirely scrubbed off our list.

Another tent that had been on our list was the Vaude Space L 3P, but we'd come across a couple of reviews saying that they'd got water in their tents which we found surprising given the brand... but found hard to disregard!
https://www.outsidematerial.com/portfol ... pace-l-3p/
https://www.amazon.de/VAUDE-Unisex-Kupp ... tBy=recent

Horizon: The Osprey look good, but we wanted the two doors to get good ventilation on top of the extra porch space. Also the longest length is getting on for 4m which makes it harder to hide away in some wild camping spots. And also we were fairly keen on the free standing.

On weights, the Raptor is listed at 2.99kg and the Lodge 2 at 3.3kg. The floor HH is 10Kmm for them both, but you're right its 5K for the lodge and 4K for the Raptor.... which we felt was OK, given that most lightweight tents we've seen have had tiny floor HHs (3000mm) and even lower fly values (1500mm, say).

pjclinch: Yep what you've said lines up with what we've read about the advantages of Si/Si and polyester.
I suppose it comes down to a decision of investment...
But even then, the Raptor costs less than one month rent in our current flat and this is gonna be our home, so....!
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pjclinch
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Re: Robens Raptor

Post by pjclinch »

greencelery wrote:Sweep: The Lodge 2 was the tent that made us look at Robens tents. But there were a few things that pushed us towards the Raptor:
The Raptor has a slightly taller inner height anyways and the structure of the Raptor looked like it would make the most of that height.


Looking at pictures, that looks about the case. The Lodge is a dome while the Raptor is a half-cyclinder, so you have quite a bit more inner volume with the inner tapering only tapering in one dimension, so you get full sitting height all along the centre lone, rather than just under the apex. Quite what the effects of this are is best seen by crawling around pitched examples, so if you're using mail-order I'd be inclined to order both and send back the second choice.

Pete.
Often seen riding a bike around Dundee...
greencelery
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Re: Robens Raptor

Post by greencelery »

Sweep wrote:You say you have done lots of research so I am assuming that you considered the Robens Lodge 2. Much discussed on here, including by me. Am a great fan of it.


Sweep, just a follow up to this - have you had a Lodge 2 for a long while? How has the fly held up? In terms of waterproofness/ UV degradation etc. I know the fly is polyester, but I don't think that Robens list on their website what the coatings are. Do you know? I'm assuming not silicon given the price.

Cheers!
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Sweep
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Re: Robens Raptor

Post by Sweep »

Hi greencelery

Not sure about the coatings.

Have maybe only camped in it for two to three weeks so far so too soon to judge personally about any degredation. If you search on here though you will find lots of good things written about it by bretonbikes who uses it in his bike camping business. So he has clsarly given several of them some intensive use.

I can vouch for its ability to shed weather having sat snugly in it through a 12 to 15 hour downpour and last autumn in kent through the remnants of a named storm/hurricane.

It's a great simple tent and I would seriously consider it.

I carry it sideways on the top of my rack, no problem at all.

Easy to erect, self supporting essentially. The height is fine for me. I use it as a solo tent.

Zips seem excellent. Of all the tents I have had and still have I find it the easiest to get in and out of - well tested by me as I hzve reached the age where it's not unknown for me to have to exit in the middle of the night.

Oh its design also makes it great to get in and out if in pouring rain. not so much as a drop has ever entered the inner tent.

Feel free to ask any other questions.
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greencelery
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Re: Robens Raptor

Post by greencelery »

Thanks sweep, I'd seen the rave reviews from Breton bikes :-)
We were on the verge of buying both as suggested by pjclinch, to put them up in the flat and crawl around inside... But then found the raptor on sale for 405€.... Which seemed too good to be true and so we just went for it.

For anyone interested we bought from here:
https://www.outdoorsports24.com/robens- ... 1010347002
Think the extra 10% discount is only valid for 24 hours.
I'll report back on how we find it! :-)
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