Cycling UK Forum

Most of my light weight camping is backpacking. You have to be organised in packing a rucksack. So when on the bike I like to be organised for convenience.
I do also use a racktop bag with the Tea making kit in it.

I like tents that pitch inner first, it's then natural to pack the inner and fly separately, one usually being wet the other pretty much always dry. I use two small, cheap Karrimor stuff sacks, which pack on top of the Ortlieb panniers, one each side, fastened with the strap that goes over the top. Poles on the rack wrapped in the groundsheet protector, where there's not much space for anything else under the saddlebag. I like the idea that the tent can go up without opening or disturbing anything else. It would be a faff to get anything out of those panniers with the tent loaded, but not a problem if you pack in such a way as that's unnecessary.

My tent goes in the trailer along with everything else.

Cheers
Allan

I used to wrap my tent in a large oilskin coat that I wore off the bike, along with a groundsheet and then tie it to the rack top. Now I use a Carradice roll top stuff sack and a few other things go in it along with the tent (usually by Thermarest chair thing, groundsheet and wet stuff). I find this works well as the bag can breath but is waterproof and look pretty inconspicuous too.

Anyone tried keeping things in their seat tube?

Poles or anything?

QuasiTourer wrote:Anyone tried keeping things in their seat tube?

Poles or anything?

Not something I would do because of the grease from the seat post. I have strapped poles under the top tube/crossbar.

I put my poles (Laser Comp) in my rear panniers along with the tent. The poles fit in my Ortleibs diagonally; I have a length of thin drainpipe which the pole, end poles and pegs slide into.

in addition to protecting the pole, this lets me pack the panniers inside the tent if it is raining, drop the tent and pop the tent and poles into the pannier - the pipe acts as a sleeve down the pannier. Just have to make sure you use up the space under it with some soft, squashable kit!

The tent, and inner, is put into a Exped XS sized stuff sac - I sometimes pack the inner separately but usually cannot fact he fag of detaching/re-attaching it - there is usually an opportunity to dry it out during the day and if not it does not take too long once the tent is pitched again.

When my son and I go camping, on a tandem, our ludicrously cheap but effective Karrimor tent travels in it's own well sized stuffsac on top of the rack on the tandem with 1 long strap in an x-pattern - along with the saddlebag (clothes/personal effects) above, the bar bag (camera, wallet, maps (what no GPS?), phone at t'other end, the front panniers (sleeping bags, liners, pillows and thermarests) and rear panniers (food in one and all cooking stuff in'tother). Always impressive on the road. I usually thank my lucky stars that we live in East Anglia and don't have to cart all this up and down hills all day - bearing in mind that my stoker is only 6 years old.

fatboy wrote:I'm looking into getting a tent, not terribly bothered about weight but wondering about packed size and where I should put it. I'd be using Altura Arran 46 litre panniers and I'd imagine that I'd strap it onto the rack, but what if it rains? Should I be bagging it up?

Sorry if this sounds really obvious!

We use four panniers per bike. and the tent occupies one of our rear panniers. We split the inner and outer tent put the inner in a plastic bag to keep it dry. The condensation on the outer tent would make the inner tent wet otherwise. Depending on which tent we take, the tent the poles either go in the rear Ortlieb or strapped lengthways on the rear rack.
Regards
Stan

As people have already said, I put my tent lengthways on my pannier rack, in it's original stuff sack, but put inside two plastic shopping bags end to end if it rains. The shopping bags are light to carry, fully waterproof and always handy once you get to camp to keep your rubbish in.

My tent lies along the rack and is covered by my pan pack panniers. You can see the arrangement here. The strange things sticking out the back are my juggling clubs. You can't go cycletouring without your juggling cubs, can you?

I am not an experienced tourer but this seems to work for me. Thats the tent in its bag on the rack behind the seatpost. In wet the mat and tent go in plastic bags.

I also only have rear panniers, but use one of the sides to put my tent in. Tent goes wet in it if is wet as the tent is waterproof anyway and the panniers are not, so they eventually dry when I get back home The other side of the pannier holds the mat and sleeping bag and the rucksack that holds/zips on top holds the clothes. Clothes and sleeping bag/mat live inside waterproof bags of course! But my longest tour has been 4 days and we tend to eat in pubs and not cook in the campsite, although I still have room for my portable stove in the front handlebar bag to make myself a hot cuppa