(tents) how heavy is heavy ?

totolacoste

Just thinking back to those days.. I must have cycled around 50 km a day, six days a week, for a year. No wonder I was in shape then! My girlfriend used to get me to cook wearing just boxers and an apron.

<fx: looks sadly at beer belly>

*sigh*

Right. How much is that Long Haul Trucker ...?

threaded

One thing to watch out for on these lightweight tents is how much area a folded tent takes up. Some of these lightweight tents use these fibreglass twisty stays and fold into a bag bigger that's quite a bit bigger than a wheel. Can be hazardous if you're out somewhere windy.

You want to make sure it folds into a small cylinder a little shorter than your bars are wide and with a diameter of about 20 cm max.

ThatGuyOnABike

well the tents aren't made by decathlon and i've been in one and it isn't too bad except the floor seems worryingly weak, but i am sure it was some kind of anti tear material.

they come it packs that can easily fit on bikes. i agree that the flatpack pop up ones that come in round packs are total jokes in terms of tents. they are only good for kids to play in in my opinion.

but i would say that you should look into the coleman avior x3 but it is about £30 more expensive then decathlon. if you have the money coleman make a few deceant light and compact 3 person tents which i'm sure will have all the space you need.

pubtourer

Getting back to your original calculations - they are well off. You divided instead of multiplying - 9.4kg is actually over 20lbs and way too heavy for solo touring unless you are a real glutton for punishment or hoping to gather a harem en route! A two man tent is usually a good option for someone who wants a bit of comfort on the road.

Enjoy your trip!

geoffs

do you want a tent or a Taj Mahal??
9.4kg is ridiculous for cycletouring unless you want the training of carting a boat anchor. )

The tent we will e using next for the 2 of us next time we tour will be the Salewa Sierra Leone Ultra Tent which at 2.8 kg seems the best combination of weight and space for us. I used a tent of a similar size many years ago when I was touring by myself and have managed a (very) cosy game of cards for 5 on a rainy day in France.

Cheers

Geoff

Aushiker

Are you talking about tents here or beach shelters? I have never seen nor heard any lightweight tents as described.

Regards
Andrew

__________________
07 Giant CRX 1 - 02 Giant Boulder SE
Bushwalking - Geocaching - My Bicycling Blog

totolacoste

I think he's referring to those '3 second' efforts that indeed look like huge wheels..

Aushiker

If the tent or more specifically the floor is made of silicon coated nylon (sinylon) you will find it is very thin but actually quite tough. They are however slippery and if you use a Therm-a-Rest or similiar you will find they slide around a fair bit.

You can overcome this problem by running lines of silcone seam sealer along the floor. It acts like a "grip" reducing the slipperyness of the floor.

Regards
Andrew

__________________
07 Giant CRX 1 - 02 Giant Boulder SE
Bushwalking - Geocaching - My Bicycling Blog

totolacoste

Heh .. you read my mind.

psiclist

144-160 MILES/day?????? @ 18-20 mph? How far are you going? Is it totally flat? Are you guaranteed a tailwind? Do you average 300+ miles/week at 20+ mph now? Sounds optimistic to me. For an unloaded commuter rider on a loaded tour with hills, I would say 50-75 miles per day would be more realistic. But it sounds fabulous. Good luck! BTW, my 3 person tent is about 2kg. Room enough for another person and our gear.

__________________
Roadie @ Heart

totolacoste

Well like I say, this is my first trip ....

geoffs

Well at the end of my first 6month tour around Europe, I was managing distances like this with no problem at all and on my best day I did 230kms which included three Cols. I was riding fully laden and even carrying everything.

But.............
I had been touring for 6 months and was seriously fit.
It was cold and I was riding back to meet some friends so I had a schedule to meet.
Doing that kind of distance means you need a huge amount of food as fuel. Trying to eat enough becomes a challenge in itself.
Forget about stopping of to see interesting things along the way. You wont have time.
If you are planning to do the Raid Pyreneen great (why would you need a 9.4 kg tent to do this?) but if you are touring then.........

Enjoy yourself. Touring is great way to see things and to meet the locals.
It makes you a traveller not a tourist.
Plan on averaging 80 to 100kms a day with a day or 2 off each week somewhere nice that you'd like to explore.

Cheers

Geoff

vinyl_theif

HI. I cycled from London to Barcelonna (then Majorca) in May/June this year & my tent was too small! I used a coleman, i forgot the name but it was kinda like a coffin tent with a sloping top, quick to errect but limited space! your 9Kg sounds way too big for one person, i'd strongly reccomend a free standing dome tent(no skewers), i saw some tourers at a camp sit this year set up under a large roofed canopy, in the dry, while i was out in the rain (it rained every day while touring!!) advantage of a free standing tent you can errect them on concrete or any hard surface that you find under shelter!

Your 160miles a day is acheivable but with a 9kg tent + supplies your statring to add undue weight, keep it light & you can keep your daily mileage up then.
I managed Ax Les Thermes to Barcelona in a day (146 miles) via the N152.
Take over shoes as i got DRENCHED form a local shower just coming out the Pyrenees
Mark. UK

bikehippy

I'd say that's insanely heavy for a touring tent, although the link you posted doesn't work any more so I can't see what you get for that weight.

I use a Terra Nova Laserlarge 1, which was originally bought for 2 people - it gets a little cramped like that but but when I tour alone it is pretty spacious. Not so huge that I'd want to sit around in it all day but I've got other things to be doing anyway :-) and there's lots of room for me and all my stuff. It weighs 1.6kg and I can fit that plus all my clothes in a rear pannier.

__________________
bike hippy