Tents

[cycletourer]

The Hilleberg range of tents are very well made but in my experience of owning a two man Nallo they are neither the lightest or strongest and the tunnel design is very noisy in anything more than light wind. I think they are a little overpriced and over hyped but its only my opinion.

Whilst I would agreed with you that Hilleberg tents are not the lightest or the strongest tent. If I were going up into the Scottish mountains I would certainly take my Terra Nova Quasar over the Hilleberg, as it's geodesic design makes for a slightly stronger tent than the Hilleberg tunnels.

But let's face it for general cycle touring where most of the time you would be on lowland campsites, sacrificing the slight strength difference for the benefit of extra room of the Hilleberg tunnel for less weight, I know which one I would choose.

I certainly haven't found the Hilleberg tunnels to be noisy in high winds, if it they are pitched properly and tensioned correctly there shouldn't be any flap factor to be noisy!

[Jord]

But let's face it for general cycle touring where most of the time you would be on lowland campsites, sacrificing the slight strength difference for the benefit of extra room of the Hilleberg tunnel for less weight, I know which one I would choose.

Hi Cycletourer I really do like the Hilleberg tent but there are tents which are as strong, lighter, and cheaper out there that all I'm saying and the post asked for a light tent hence me mentioning the Big Agnes Emerald Mountain SL3 with extra porch. Big Agnes build quality is good as well. Nowhere did I suggest lugging a four season tent around…

[RubberMan]

Jord, I have come across the Big Agnes range also and they do look good on paper, hence my earlier post asking if anyone could reference them.

The tunnel design is a great space vs weight solution and I already own a very strong 'Phoenix' (used to be great but were bought by Karrimor and went downhill I think) tunnel tent but the porch is small and noise aside the thing needs alot of pegs if there is even a slight breeze. On hard ground such as can be found in Italy, Greece etc putting the pegs in can be a pain hence my 'ideal' of a freestanding structure - minimal pegs and if in Italy or Greece, no flysheet.

On the money side, I tend to buy tents very infrequently and then look after them (Phoenix Phunnel now 12 years old and still watertight) so I am prepared to pay for the best. The Big Agnes looks positvely cheap compared to the Hilleberg but thats alot to do with the Dollar and Euro right now I guess.

Thanks again for the suggestions.

[PH]

I thought the 'ideal' or 'nice to have' would be the option to effectively hide the bikes in the tent if we were leaving them for a day. Putting them in a porch being a bit more discreet than a cover.
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With all the pitch as one tents I've seen it's possible to unclip and fold back part of the inner. So you should be able to get the bikes inside when going out for the day.

The only tent I know what fits your bill is the Big Agnes Emerald Mountain SL3 with extra porch.

I used on for a weekend, a SL2- like many American tents it has a mesh inner and the fly doesn’t reach the ground. It was pretty windy when I used it, it stayed up fine but flapped a fair bit and I found it draughty. I've bought some other BA stuff from the states, even with import duties and handling it was considerably cheaper than the UK. The Emerald Mountain was imported for less than £200 from an Ebay dealer.

[jake]

Not sure I'd agree that Hilleberg tents aren't suitable for windy conditions. A friend got through 70 mph winds during a storm on Dartmoor in his Nallo 2. I added two extra guylines to the front vent on mine and would say that this gives it stability fairly close to a geodesic design. The Nallo GT may be different story.

[andymiller]

Have you thought about the Vaude Hogan XT? the vestibule is allegedly big enough for two bikes. I'll believe it when I see it, but it does indeed look pretty big.

[andrew_s]

JOn hard ground such as can be found in Italy, Greece etc putting the pegs in can be a pain hence my 'ideal' of a freestanding structure - minimal pegs and if in Italy or Greece, no flysheet.

What I do for hard ground like that is to take a single very strong peg that I can hammer in with a big rock without fear of bending it. I then pull it out and put a lightweight aluminium peg in the hole left behind. Some of the strong pegs even come with a bit of a screw twist on them to make extraction easier.

[RubberMan]

Good point made with the ability to unclip part of the inner, I had not thought of that.

Also, the Vaude is a good option, I know someone with a Hogan and he raves about it.

Nice tip on the pegs front. Thanks.