[Closed] Best budget bikepacking tent?

Trekker tent stealth was around 150 when I bought mine. Used it for highland trail and other events and it was great...

Interesting, that looks pretty ace. Bit over budget but might be worth the extra...

I like my mini peak 2 loads of space and light enough for me

I have an oex lynx ev 1 tent, it’s fine, easy enough to pitch, weighs 1.65kg which is light enough for my use.

you would need to be extremely friendly with someone to share it like, but then i am a fat knacker, so ymmv.

it can be had for around £150 if you have a go outdoors discount card

Luxe mini peak 2 , good price and loads of room inside

I have a Gelert Solo.  Current version appears to be the "track 1".

It is a budget tent, I got mine for £25 and to be fair have not actually used it in anger, but it's only 1.5kg and fits in my Carradice.  It does use about 16 (!) pegs to pitch it properly, and pitches "inner first".  But a small investment in alloy tent pegs and that weight can drop even more, and it depend son the intended usage as to whether the pitch-order really matters.

OEX kit from Go Outdoors can be good to - they have a 1-man tent for about £50.

I love getting stuff cheap though and will only ever get limited use out of it, so I don't see the point in expensive kit!

Second hand helps keep budget down

Mate had a Gelert Solo a while back and it was ace. I do have an old Eurohike 2 man jobbie which is ok, but it's getting a bit tired around the seams (must be over ten years old and was only £30) so it feels like it's time for an upgrade.

Inner first is a bit of a dealbreaker tbh, I'll be bikepacking for 7 nights coast to coast and the last thing I want is to get the inner wet through on the first (or any!) night. Anything other than really awful weather I'll probably just take a tarp but if the forecast is bad a tent would be a good option especially for nights where we'll be quite exposed.

**EDIT** Yep second hand is definitely an option.

One person or two person tent? The usual caveat applies: for £150 you aren't going to get the lightest tent around. Have a look at  https://www.ultralightoutdoorgear.co.uk/equipment-c3/tents-shelters-c25/one-person-tents-c74#sort3  for ideas.

It has to be pretty wild weather (or very midgey) for a tarp/bivy combo to be out of its depth. Following on from Ianpv's suggestion of Trekkertent - I've one of their cuben fibre tarps, nicely made. If you went for the Stealth then you'd need some poles as well, Stuart over at Bearbones makes some shelter specific ones in carbon fibre.

I've a Terra Nova Lasercomp which is sold as a 1.5man tent - it's fine for one person but for two you need to be very good friends 🙂 It's not big enough for two if you use inflatable sleeping mats but OK if you use CCF mats like Karrimats. It's 900g including poles and pegs. If you wanted you could borrow it.

I've only really ever used a tarp in reasonably decent weather (drizzly rain and breezy) although to be fair I got a great night's sleep. Maybe I should just MTFU and stick to what I have, most nights we're going to be in the woods anyway so we should be pretty sheltered.

And thank you very much for the offer whitestone, but I prefer not to borrow things where I can avoid it just in case something terrible happens and it gets damaged - especially when I know I'll struggle to afford to replace it!

I already have an Alpkit tarp, might look at a better quality bivi instead of a tent.

Or a hammock?

I like the idea of a hammock, but a lot of my camps (not just on this trip) are likely to be places where there's nowhere to string one up!

I grabbed a Gelert Soloista in a Decathlon sale.  £25.

Pitches inner first.  Is no good if you're over 5' 10 and enjoy stretching out. It has fibre poles.  The pegs are made of cheese. Packs tiny and weighs 1.5kg

You get what you pay for but it's stood up to some v strong coastal winds and rain so far.  When it fails I expect it to fail spectacularly in an explosion of torn nylon and snapping poles.  Until such eventuality I'll be slowly saving for something more awesomer.

*edit seems liek the Soloista is no longer manufactured.  If I was buying budget option again I'd probably be looking at taking a punt on something like this whixh is similar yet with alloy poles:

http://www.gooutdoors.co.uk/oex-phoxx-1-man-backpacking-tent-p360400

Plenty of reviews there.  If you trust reviews.

+1 for sourcing decent used tents.  Plenty of people like the idea of backpacking and buy all the best gear, try it once, then the stuff goes in the cupboard forever/until fleabay/boot sale day

You mentioned "we" so the Lasercomp might be a bit small 🙂

First line of defence is what nature (or early man) provides: trees, walls, etc. That protects you from most of the wind and rain. Then your tarp  protects you from most of the rest. Your bivy bag then protects against what remains which tends to be spray and condensation so it doesn't need to be as robust as the tarp. It's worth getting a bigger bivy bag (like the Hunka XL) as that lets you get sleeping mat, sleeping bag and yourself inside it.

The Hunka XL is 500g & £65. If that's too heavy then have a look at Borah Gear. We've a couple of their Ultralight side bivy which are around 170g for the same price - depends if you get stung for duty and VAT plus it's probably 5-6 weeks, I'd need to check the email trail for ours, from order to delivery as they are States side. John at Borah Gear will do minor custom work for no extra charge - ours have a "letterbox" midge panel rather than the whole head section being midge panel so your head is protected from spray. Not sure of UK made cheaper ones.

No one right answer I'm afraid!

*Edit have a look at  the Vango Zenith? Both the 100 and 200.  Looks like a Zephyros type setup.  For base camps I've used a Vango Halo 200 for nearly a decade and loved it.  Might give one of these a try next for bike-packing/touring.

7 days in a gelert solo, youse trying to put him off for life? 😆

So far as I've been able to tell the Terra Nova Laser, Wild Country Zephyros, Force 10 Helium and Vango Zenith are essentially the same tent.  TN and WC are the same firm really, likewise F10/Vango, so the difference in price is really weight and materials.

Certainly for the helium (and I strongly suspect the others) the main pole goes in a sleeve round the outside, so while officially an outer first pitch, they actually go up in one.  I am not sure, but I think there might be subtle differences in the lengths of the end poles (48cm on helium) if getting them in a frame bag is important?

As for best, well I dunno, but I suspect that by the time you've got tarp and bivvy gear you are looking at more or less the same weight and bulk of a tent.  It's all about choices.

I've actually got a Hunka (may be an XL, I forget) which is pretty good, the main problem being that it's a pain to get in and out of. Not the end of the world, but especially annoying when one wakes up in the middle of the night needing a wee. Which one does with alarming regularity.

Thus that Borah bag looks like it might be perfect...

That Vango definitely looks like a possibility too.

**EDIT** I reckon tarp and bivi is lighter by a fair chunk unless you're spending a fortune on a tent, especially with something superlight like that Borah. 170g for the bivi, my tarp is around 270g then say 200g (probably less) for pegs and cord. No need for poles with a bike if you're a bit cunning, that makes it 640g. Even with a heavier 500g bivi you're still looking around a kg, you'd have to spend a fair chunk on a tent for that.

BUT that said weight isn't everything, comfort is important too.

**DOUBLE EDIT** Just looked at the F10 Helium, 1.2kg and £180. That's a definite possibility.

On the basis of 'buy cheap, buy twice', I'd suggest having a look at an Alpkit Ordos 2. It's over your budget - £239 - but it's a well-designed, well-made tent that's decently light for two people and actually comfortable to use. Some mates of mine have one which they bought specifically for bike packing and they love it.

We did a mid-summer solstice wild camp with them and I'd happily have swapped the MSR Hubba NX we were using for an Ordos.

I've used the F10 Helium as well. It's light and good value, but cramped for more than one person and I found the layout of the tent means the inner is right in your face when you're lying down. That's not a big issue for occasional use, but it's kind of wearing in the longer term.

I bought one of the Blacks 1 man tents which appears to be a clone of the Macpac Microlight.  It looks like it might now be branded as a Berghaus. I think I paid around £70, and it's a really solid tent.  I haven't used it very often, but one night at a campsite near Newtonmore it shrugged off a storm which saw off a lot of tents, including one or two mountain tents.  I did have the tent very well pegged out, but I was impressed at how well it stood up to the storm.

It's a little bit fiddly to peg out, simply because it's an unusual shape, and I found I had to reposition some pegs once the tent was fully up.  On the plus side, it goes up with outer and inner together.

Its downsides are that it isn't the lightest, and it only has s ingle way zip on the door, so it's not easy to ventilate when it's raining.  I also seem to remember that the inner hangs a bit loose.

I've got the slightly larger Macpac Minaret which is a great tent, and my experience with the Blacks makes me want to try the Microlight, and see what the differences are.

Alpkit Ordos 2

As a zephyros 2 owner(previously the coffin that is the gelert solo), I've been eying that up these days. Tempted to go for it. The space in side it does look great for 1.3kg. Defo looks a tent you could be comfortable in over a week.

(The zephryos is ok btw, but the inner is a bit low(5'9" I hit my head on it), you can unpin it from the inside which gives you loads of space, but you forgo your midgy protection then, so that's only viable on some days.)

Alpkit Ordos 2

I like my Alpkit Delta, but the groundsheet is just *too* thin IMO. Make sure you get a footprint.

I like my Alpkit Delta, but the groundsheet is just *too* thin IMO. Make sure you get a footprint.

I don't get this with tents - why make them with such a thin groundsheet so that for all practical purposes you need a footprint to protect them? Why not just provide a decent groundsheet to begin with? OK, the tent will be heavier by a couple of hundred grammes but other than the ultra-light models it's not going to make that much difference: "Look at my lightweight 2.6kg tent", "But it needs a 200g footprint to be usable", "Yes, but the tent only weighs 2.6kg" 🙄

I’m just building up kit for bikepacking and just bought a Zephyrus 1EP with a free footprint for £110 delivered

Where from? That's a bit of a bargain!

Although what I probably really ought to do is some tarp nights in crappy weather and see how it goes...

Gelert solo

+1

It's not flawless, but you need to spend a lot of £££ to get any significant weight reduction (once you've swapped to alloy pegs).

The only real negative is while some tents let you cook in the porch area, in the gellert this is seriously uncomfortable. So if it's raining you don't get a hot meal. And you will never be able to get changed in it. It's really a glorified bivi.

The only real negative is while some tents let you cook in the porch area, in the gellert this is seriously uncomfortable. So if it’s raining you don’t get a hot meal. And you will never be able to get changed in it. It’s really a glorified bivi.

All of which goes back to how often you intend to use the tent. If it's an occasional thing that may not matter to you. If you're off for a week or more then it all gets a bit wearing ime.

It's a bit like the old bike thing: light, comfortable, cheap, pick two... You need to work out what matters to you: on bike weight / comfort and functionality / both and choose accordingly. My experience of going 'too light' is that in the wrong conditions you just end up being miserable. Which is fine for the odd night, not so great for a multi-day trip.

I have a Zephyros 2 XL - plenty of space for me at 6'3 but they stopped the XL version a while ago

Also have a Scarp 1 but that'll be over budget - not tried this it in anger, planning to do this in Snowdonia in a couple of months

All of which goes back to how often you intend to use the tent. If it’s an occasional thing that may not matter to you. If you’re off for a week or more then it all gets a bit wearing ime.

It’s a bit like the old bike thing: light, comfortable, cheap, pick two… You need to work out what matters to you: on bike weight / comfort and functionality / both and choose accordingly. My experience of going ‘too light’ is that in the wrong conditions you just end up being miserable. Which is fine for the odd night, not so great for a multi-day trip.

I agree, but equally for a week £150 would get you a hostel every night.

I'm quite happy with mine,although I've not done a full week in it. When I do use it I only tend to stop riding to sleep, so I'll cook and eat at dinner at 6ish then ride till it gets dark and camp.  And tend to have packed to suit the conditions.

Warm and dry - bivi

Warm and wet - bivi + tarp

Cold and dry - tent

Cold and wet - stay home.

@BadlywiredDog

+1 The trick is working out what works for you for particular scenarios without spending a fortune on the way.

I'll use my ultralight cuben fibre tarp and bivy bag for ITTs but when touring I'll take an Alpkit Rig7 along with poles recycled from an old Wild Country tent. It's still not particularly heavy, especially since it's for two people, but there's a lot more room. This is the Alpkit tarp in use last May - there's actually a very strong wind howling (literally) through the trees, it was bloomin' Baltic! The sawn log is my seat BTW and the log at the back is one of a couple helping keep things tied down because of the wind.

I still need to get a shot of the lightweight setup, the only one I have is very early morning and blurred 🙄

The route we're looking at would be closer to £200 in hostels and hotels, and I'd sooner spend that money on camping kit that I'll reuse (or not spend it at all!), especially when it's in August when (in theory) it should at least be fairly warm.

200 quid is cheap for 7 days.

I'll bet you'll have changed your mind afterwards, 😆 don't underestimate the power of warmth, a hot shower and a bed every night after a long days cycling!

Oh totally. But camping makes better stories (and it's probably the last time for a while I'll get to do a biggish adventure).

Some campsites are expensive even if you're staying in a wee tent, although you often get a discount if you arrive under your own steam rather than in a car.

By the way, that storm I mentioned above occurred on an August Bank Holiday...

I got it from Cotswold outdoor online

There are some great tents and shelters on Aliexpress. I have a Trailstar copy and a single-pole ‘tent’ that’s a little similar to the SMD Deschutes shelter and can be pitched outer or inner only or both together. Both are amazing for the price (about £40-50).

^^^^^^^^

I was going to suggest some of these

I've got a Nature hike Cloud Up(gotta get the right colour as the hydrostatic heads are differen't) whicih is influenced by a Big Agnes.

Was very,very cheap and definately not nasty.

I saw this in Go Outdoors last night & thought of this thread, cheaper end of the spectrum @ £50:

http://www.gooutdoors.co.uk/oex-phoxx-1-man-backpacking-tent-p360400?gclid=Cj0KCQjw_ODWBRCTARIsAE2_EvVXoju78-BQDXrj35DDFZMmz5YShjluwn4YWR8MrfHquOFCqZpr64IaAmSwEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

Hi mate , I've got a vaude Taurus 2 UL weighs in at 1.4 (so not really light weight but lighter than the wild country) including lightweight pegs ,had it a good few years now ,still waterproof and fully functional ,last used it in Feb ,but I have moved on to a helium bivy set up now , you can have it for the cost of postage minus the pegs if it's any use to you to get you started

@middleagedmadness that would be amazing, thank you! I'll drop you an email - is the one in your profile correct?

I'll also send some money in the direction of your favourite charity and STW.

Cheers!

Gelert option, much cheapness on Sports Direct:

https://www.sportsdirect.com/gelert-track-1-tent-783013?colcode=78301316

Now that is a generous offer! Nice one.

Cheers , mate yep that's my email address if you want you can put a couple of quid to Buxton mountain rescue and west mids air ambulance ,both were absolutely awesome when I had a bad climbing fall ,thanks for that offer,email me and I'll send you some pictures ,if it's what your looking for I can get it in the post next Wednesday (on nights till then ) once posted I'll let you know the cost can't see it being anymore than a fiver and you can PayPal gift me

Cheers

Stuart

Just found this thread, before it goes stale, anyone have experience with the <b>Wild Country Coshee 2</b> (2 person)? It’s marginally heavier at 1.9 kg but has barbag friendly length poles and a I believe a reasonable weight groundsheet so whilst a separate footprint is available it shouldn’t be needed for normal terrain.

The big plus is it is rigged in one go, so no wet inner like the Ordos 2 if rigged in rain.

Internal space looks quite roomy.

It’s also only £99 from a number of stockists, also eligible for the 30% trade in deal direct.

Thanks.

I've just bought a Vango zenith 300 from Blacks. £87 in the sale. It's 2.5 kg and will go in a bar bag. Pretty impressive for a 3 man I thought. I have a couple of adventures planned this summer.

A mate of mine has a Coshee, the one-person version, and reckons it's a great tent for the money. Don't know about the two-person version, but he reckons the design is decently tough though not the spacious tent he's ever used.

Incidentally, I have an unused Zephyros 2 that I might stick on the classifieds next week for a fair bit under list price.

As mentioned earlier, have a look on Aliexpress!