Cycling UK Forum

These Dan Durston x-mids look an interesting alternative to single pole (pyra/hexa/octa...)mids for those who dont like a pole in the middle:

https://durstongear.com/product/x-mid-2-solid

I looked at them during my extensive internet research last year. I really wanted one, mainly due to the space and the polyester fly. I didn't go for one in the end because I get the impression you need quite a flat rectangle of ground to pitch on, and I invariably end up pitching on sub optimal tussocky ground and so on. They now do a semi solid inner not just mesh which was the other offputting thing.

I went with a Tarptent Notch 1 in the end which is a good tent but better for hiking than cycle touring - a little cramped with panniers flying around. Maybe I should be more organised.

Just out of interest, it's really simple to make your own carbon fibre tent poles which means you can have them the right length for your luggage.

There's an (extremely long) thread about this tent on this uk based lightweight camping forum :
https://www.trek-lite.com/index.php?thr ... -mid.4960/
Note that the tent uses hiking poles, but carbon poles can be used. I'm sure that theres info about it in the thread... somewhere...!
I think that the tl:dr summary is that it's pretty well thought of.

I find the forum in general useful for camping themes.

nb - reference is made to long waits for orders for this product... that info may be well out of date by now but just thought I'd mention what I saw.

hufty wrote: ↑28 Dec 2022, 4:30pm....it's really simple to make your own carbon fibre tent poles which means you can have them the right length for your luggage.

Do you have a link to instructions on how?

Regarding carbon poles, we offer some new adjustable carbon poles for bikepacking as you can see here:
https://durstongear.com/product/z-flick-tent-pole

Those are sold out right now, but we'll have more in a few months. There are also quite a few other options, although no other poles that are flick lock adjustable like this, nor other adjustable poles this light.

For the tents, we have often been sold out of them as the tent got really popular during covid when our production was impacted, but we have resolved that and most models of the tents are in stock now.

The Dan Durston? Welcome to the forum! That Henry Shires never posts on here he just took my money and ran

SA_SA_SA wrote: ↑28 Dec 2022, 7:43pm

hufty wrote: ↑28 Dec 2022, 4:30pm....it's really simple to make your own carbon fibre tent poles which means you can have them the right length for your luggage.

Do you have a link to instructions on how?

Thank you for asking

I have to say those Durston poles look like The Ones although there would be VAT and import fees to pay and a bit of a wait. If you make your own you could be sleeping in a collapsed tent by mid January.

Mine are 4 sections of 12mm outer diameter carbon fibre tube with a 12.5" pack length, 46" fixed length, 83g each. You'd have to decide for yourself whether a stronger more adjustable pole is worth the 10g weight penalty. Three of my outer sections are more or less 11" (1.5" of protruding insert makes 12.5") but the top section is a smidge longer as the aluminium end (see below) protrudes only 3/4".

I got my tube from ebay eg https://www.ebay.co.uk/str/katanacarbonfibercomposite2. I used 12mm OD tube (10mm ID) for the pole sections and 9.8mm OD tube for the inserts. They make the funny diameters specifically to slip into the next tube size up.

The tube cuts easily enough with a fine tooth saw although does blunt the blades. I think the dust is injurious to health. I used a senior hack saw but you can get modeller's pull saws for your airfix planes. A wrap of masking tape is a good enough guide for a nice perpendicular cut. I got a better cut by sawing towards the middle then rotating the tube a bit, rather than trying to blast through in one go.

You can super glue carbon fibre apparently, but I have more faith in two-part araldite plus it gives you more working time. I cut my insert pieces at 3" (1.5" insertion just seemed right) masked off half, roughened the other half, cleaned all surfaces to be glued with alcohol, let everything dry, smeared araldite onto the insert, twisted it in, left it alone overnight in the shed bingo first section made.

I originally thought I wouldn't link all the sections together but shockcording them together with 3mm cord soon makes total sense. In which case you might want some of these https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/154546032115. I cut two down for the bottoms of the poles. There's no need to glue them in, a wrap of electrical tape keeps them in place.

I tried various rubber ends, yoghurt pots, rebar caps etc to stop the poles sinking into the ground but settled in the end on these pole cups https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/175207587541. My tent has a couple of webbing loops designed for walking poles and I was able to fix the cups permanently to the webbing by making a perpendicular cut into the middle of the long slot.

Thanks for the welcome.

It sounds like a nice project on those poles. Our adjuster mechanism is quite light, but with an adjustable pole you have a bit more length (since the pole can extend taller to 51.5") and you also end up wanting to go 5 section instead of 4, since 51.5" x 4 = 13" plus 1.5" for overlap is too long at 14.5", so each of those things adds a few grams and you get to 93g, which is still very light for what is a highly stiff, adjustable pole (as far as I know it's the lightest adjustable pole on the market).

SA_SA_SA wrote: ↑28 Dec 2022, 2:16pm These Dan Durston x-mids look an interesting alternative to single pole (pyra/hexa/octa...)mids for those who dont like a pole in the middle:

https://durstongear.com/product/x-mid-2-solid

Neat.

Jonathan

YouTuber Paul Messner is a big fan of the Durston Mid X tent

https://youtu.be/kpTVoBdFvPg