Best tent for touring

[marymary]

Hi has anyone got any suggestions for a 2 man cycle touring tent?

[kernow montpelier]

Vango Banshee 300. 3-person but leaves plenty of room if it's raining and stuff and you can sit up in it. Good price and easily available.Easy to put up etc.

[tramponabike]

42

I don't think there is a single best tent. There are so many differing needs, not to say budgets.

If you try the search function (top left) I am sure you will find more information than you know what to do with.

I think you will need to give a bit more background to get helpful suggestions. Prices can range from £30 - £600+. How many berth? Summer campsites or 3 season camping in the hills? Shelter for bikes, gear and cooking, etc or minimalist shelter? How much do you want/are you able to carry?

edit: Just seen post above re Banshee 300. I have a 200 and have found it unsatisfactory for my own needs. However I think the 300 might be a far better option. The quality for the price make the Banshee a good start.

My problem with the Banshee 200 is that it's a bit tight for 2 berth for much more than a weekend and a bit heavy for 1 berth. The flysheet alone makes a great single skin for 1 or 2 though. Also due to the roll of the semi tunnel sides, there is little effective porch cover to alow brewing in the entrance in the rain unless the wind is in the exactly right direction.. Larger size of the 300 will help with that, as will the choice of door openings.

[vernon]

Tent weight is not as critical when cycle camping so I'm prepared to put up with the extra weight for the luxury of the additional space.

www.cheaptents.co.uk would be a useful starting point as there's lot's of tents covering a wide price range and a wide range of specs.

I've seen it said more than once that one should always buy a tent with one berth more than the people expected to use it. I have a couple of two man tents which would be claustrophobic if they were to be used for two people but are great for one man use. The one man tent that I have is useful for one or two nights away but I would baulk at the notion of using it for a week long tour.

[Hypocacculus]

Funny, because we are very happy with a small two man tent - we have a Coleman Cobra, and yes, we do like to keep the weight down. You can easily save kilos with the right tent choice. Mind you, we used a Saunders Jetpacker (only 2 lbs or so whereas the Cobra is more like 4.5lb... from the days before bendy poles had really caught on) before that so anything feels like an echoing cathedral in comparison. I loved that tent too, but Mr H found it a cramp too far.

I wouldn't hesitate to recommend the Cobra, ours has never let us down. Although I see the new ones now have only one side entrance, whereas ours has two, which is part of its appeal - in hot weather you can lift the sides so any breeze wafts through the tent. Given that they are now much cheaper, I wonder if they are the same quality.

If I was going somewhere I knew would be warm, sunny and benign, any old tent would do as long as it is acceptably light and small enough to strap to the bike.

However, if weather is a consideration, look at wind and rain proofing above all else, and make sure it has an area big enough to stow wet panniers under the fly sheet but outside the inner tent. I can live with weight, size inconveniences and crap pegs but not a miserable 3 am awakening to a wet sleeping bag.

[bealer]

I like Tarptents (www.tarptent.com). They're single skin tents, but that doesn't bother me. Good ventilation and you won't get any condensation.

Being single skin they are lightweight, and incredibly well thought out. I can put mine up in just over a minute! It weighs around 850g. For a 2 or 3 man tent you can get one that weighs around 1.3kg. They usually cost around £160-200, you have to order them in from the US.

Mine works very well for touring and doing a bit of stealth/wild camping. I'm a big believer in cutting weight if you can as it makes the bike so more much enjoyable to ride, requires less effort/energy as you have less you push, and it generally makes you more mobile.

[Hypocacculus]

They're single skin tents..... They usually cost around £160-200, you have to order them in from the US.

This isn't a poke at Tarp tents, (I actually like the look of them ), but isn't it amazing how less always costs more!

[BeeKeeper]

I lashed out on a Hilleberg Nallo 2 GT. It is probably way over the top for one person but I like the big space in the porch which is large enough to safely cook in when it is wet and big enough to put the bike in if you take the wheels off. The Footprint ground sheet seems expensive but it is an essential extra in my view. It is shaped to be about 10cm smaller than the outer skin all the way round so rain is shed away from the groundsheet and is fastend by straps to the rest of the tent. It is left in place all the time and this makes putting up the tent a doddle. Just shake it out, peg down one end or side of it is windy and then just slide in the poles. The tent goes up in no time and is equally easy to put away - folding in on itself with the groundsheet on the outside keeping any mud off the tent. It also comes in green so is ideal for stealthy camping.

Downside of the tent is probably the bulk when packed but it fits lengthwise on my rear rack OK and also the entrance is a bit cramped.

[horizon]

42

I don't think there is a single best tent. There are so many differing needs, not to say budgets.

I was trying to think of something critical for cycle touring and I remembered Flysheet First. I do think this is a hugely important feature for the UK as you may be pitching and breaking camp every day - it is the key to staying dry.

[wearwell]

We've had a North Face Roadrunner 23 for several years. Very happy with it. It's very, very, quick to put up,once you have cracked the system (inner first and watch the colour coded blue corner goes down wind, or slope) even in a gale (do it down-wind and peg the inner corners first, before anything else).
Very good fly sheet, never lets in a drop. The inner is all net so you don't get condensation inside either.
Flysheet first makes sense in bad weather but this tent is so quick it doesn't really matter.

[horizon]

The inner is all net so you don't get condensation inside either.

What is the inner for?

[jdthebrit]

I mostly use an old Vango Hydra 2 ( a Saunders clone) for forests and plains. For mountains the Hilleberg Staika comes out. I know it's a bit of a stinker weight wise but it's actually only 2.2 lbs or exactly one kilo heavier than the Vango. Bombproof too.

It's even better when 'er indoors carries it on her Dawes

Both tents suit my touring style, which is......touring. Cycling, and sightseeing.

[simonineaston]

Hi has anyone got any suggestions for a 2 man cycle touring tent?

No. Not until you let us know about some of the many varied qualities that your ideal tent might have. These qualities include: weight, volume, price, quality and intended use. There are many other aspects to a tent than these, many of which you will not learn about until you have owned/used several tents. They are, after all, tiny little versions of your house...
One person's perfect tent is another person's nightmare - sometimes literally! Practically no other subject on this forum has prompted more furious rebuttals than the question, "What tent would you recommend?"
I can, on the other hand, tell you all about my current tent, and why I think it's really really great, but I wouldn't dare do it on this forum, 'cos I just know my post will be followed by a dozen or so, telling me exactly why I am completely wrong!
I will start by saying that if you really mean that there's 2 of you sharing the load, then you are in business, 'cos that means you have a whopping choice! If you say that up to 2 kgs each is a reasonable weight for each person to carry, tent-wise, then there are dozens of decent tents out there for you. Probably the best thing you can do now is google "tent show", then go along and get in 'em.
I will finish by drawing your attention to the fact that I have a stupendous, top-quality mountain tent for sale - PM me if you are interested!!
viewtopic.php?f=32&t=52275

[willem jongman]

My wife and I now use a Hilleberg Nammatj 3 GT that replaced our family tent, the Keron 4 GT. The Nammatj is rock solid in the worst possible weather, extremely practical, and a bit on the heavy side. My wife and I have a somewhat different angle when it comes down to weight vs comfort. She feels that the Nammatj is still too small, I think at 3.8 kg it is still too heavy. So it is probably the perfect compromise, at least for us. The quality, however, is not a compromise. For me an important downside worth mentioning is that it is less than ideal for taller people. I have to make sure my feet don't touch the inner, and I am only 177cm. Oh ... before anybody else says so, I agree it is obscenely expensive. But it is also better than anything I know.
Willem

[tramponabike]

Oh ... before anybody else says so, I agree it is obscenely expensive. Willem

Wouldn't dream of it Willem. In fact I nearly bought one but my batman didn't like the colour.