tent question

[jags]

i've been cycling most days this week from 20 to 50 miles spins probably done over 200 miles this week the weather is fantastic so i'm making the most of it.
but yeah i could count on one hand the amound of cars i met on my back road routes.i stay well away from main roads  so traffic aint a problem.
my son is living in Indianapolis, he sent me a video yesterday on his trip into town.6 lanes of traffic all going at breakneck speed he reckoned i would love driving there  .

lads you guys would love cycling in ireland especally this week with all this sun we are getting
CLASS.

anto.

[Pavel]

Pavel, I can understand your desire to avoid the traffic:  I rode my '86 BMW airhead from Ottawa to the Carolinas & back in the fall of 2011 -- the traffic in many parts (not all) of the Carolinas scared the bejesus out of me on my motorcycle. 

Before that trip, I had been thinking about a cycling trip in S/Carolina -- but when I was there, I saw very few roads that I'd want to cycle on.  Some of the roads closer to the Blue Ridge Pkway in the virginias seemed more manageable (tho' hilly!)

It's interesting -- I've covered a couple of routes by both bicycle and m/cycle, and I see and remember a whole lot more by bicycle.  For m/cycle camping, you can cheat a bit on the weight, such as your 6 - 7-lb tent.  Aerostich (in Duluth, Minnesota) is a great source of supplies for touring on two motorized wheels.

(BTW - I have a vgc Sierra Designs 2 - 3 person tent, surplus to requirements.  You can have it free if you'll pay the postage, Ottawa to the Carolinas -- send me a PM if you're interested.)

Thanks for the very generous offer.  I'm afraid that my health is now such that I can only sit here and dream of the adventures of yesterday and on better days entertain myself with l just like looking at the Nomad, even if I can't take it anywhere!  

I'm trying to get my daughter to grow one more inch and then she will be able to fit the 690M well enough.  It's a stretch but doable on her 5'5" frame, and barring any further growth I'll have to explain how cycling in platform shoes is actually cool - before it ever goes for sale.  Maybe one days she will go on adventures of her own to all the places I was "going" to get around to.

You know, I lived in Canada for many years and cycle toured quite a bit in southern Ontario.    The heat and humidity weren't a problem at all. 
Ahhh the good ol' days.

[John Saxby]

Take care, Pavel, and I hope you return to health before too long.  The tent has been sitting in my basement for a while now, and probably will for a while longer ...

[mickeg]

Back to the topic of tents, on my last trip instead of bringing a solo tent, I brought a 2 person tent of the hoop type design.  It added a couple more pounds to my pack compared to my past trips with a solo tent, but I was concerned that packing up in the morning in the rain would be much easier to do in a more roomy tent.  I was going somewhere that long term averages suggested that we would have a 30 percent chance of rain every day when our trip started.

Had almost no rain, but the extra room was very nice to have.  On past trips, most of my stuff was stored in the vestibule which made entry and exit less than convenient, but the two person tent was big enough that all gear was easily stored inside the tent.

Regarding packing up in the rain (which fortunately we did not have to do on this trip), my tent (excluding poles) and air mattress went in one front pannier.  Thus, I could have packed up all gear into all but one Ortlieb pannier while I was inside the tent, then only had to pack the last pannier out in the rain.  We were lucky that I did not have to test this procedure.

On this most recent trip, the friend I toured with bought a new solo tent for the trip, he was very happy with it.  In the photo, my tent is on the left.

[Pavel]

I noticed that my editor (the cat on my lap) completely destroyed half my post.  Serves me right for veering off topic.

Yeah, back to the tents.  Here it is often humid enough that the tent does not dry out at all over the course of a day.  I bought a mesh bag from Alpkit (in the U.K.) and when I take the tent down I put all in the side rear pannier except the outer fly which I put in the mesh bag.  Sometimes it dries but often it doesn't ... but it does keep the mildew away, so perhaps others may find such a thing useful.

It is rain that makes me a believer in the Hilleberg line of tents, well, along with the bulletproof construction.  Being able to put a tent up in one piece and have it dry in the pouring rain is wonderful.

I've had five tent thus far, mostly the Big Agnes brand.  I started out with a two man (two real skinny men? ) and liked it but found it was with no virtues.  Too small for comfort and too heavy to not be lured by ultra-light.  So I got a one man.  That made me realize I fall into the comfort end of the scale.  So I bought a three man and a four man Big Agness.  Loved the four man and liked the three man.  Putting any of them up in the rain was horrible and while they were quite light I found that the claims of quality were seriously exaggerated.  The three man was basically full of little holes and stitching starting to come apart.  That turned me off lightweight.  I wish I had just bought the hilleberg right a the get go. Would have saved grief and money.  Oh well, that's how it goes!

I only find one problem with my preferred kind of tent, a larger three man.  That is the width.  Even in a tunnel design, which I now favor for this very reason, many of the places I've had to sneak to for a night of slumber have been so narrow between the trees and brambles that a two man was a challenge to fit.

For those who travel by bike rather than hike, and say "weight be damned" like I do, I wonder if a two tent strategy could be doable.  A hammock for where that is convenient and a regular, more spacious two or three man tent.  All under ~ 6 killos ( 13-14 pounds)?  Could work for me.  Weight be damned.  I need my beauty sleep! 

[il padrone]

I've soured on it a bit too, but the part that I have gotten tired of is the cycling in traffic.  I found that here in North Carolina, everything is located near either primary or secondary highways.

Reminds me of Bill Bryson's descriptions of the attitudes to walking in his book "A Walk in the Woods". He walked through North Carolina on the Appalachian Trail, and it seemed like town footpaths were more a challenge than the bears in the woods.

“Four times I was honked at for having the temerity to proceed through town without the benefit of metal.”

“I know a man who drives 600 yards to work. I know a woman who gets in her car to go a quarter of a mile to a college gymnasium to walk on a treadmill, then complains passionately about the difficulty of finding a parking space. When I asked her once why she didn't walk to the gym and do five minutes less on the treadmill, she looked at me as if I were being willfully provocative. 'Because I have a program for the treadmill,' she explained. 'It records my distance and speed, and I can adjust it for degree of difficulty.' It hadn't occurred to me how thoughtlessly deficient nature is in this regard.”