Camping
CanvasCamp Sibley 500 Protech
No, this is not the tent which we carry around on the bicycles. The tent, poles and inner compartments weigh up to 45 kg. This is our "glamping tent" and we use it for the trips by car when we take along our Bromptons or Santos MTB's.
The tent has a diameter of 5 meters and total hight of 3 meter. The inner sleeping compartment provides enough space for 2 X 2 mattresses. The canvas is of 100% cotton and the bathtub style groundsheet is of heavy ripstop PVC.
The door is with an integrated mesh door, the sidewalls can be entirely rolled up and a mesh wall can be attached to keep the tent sealed against insects.
The only weight or volume restriction which we have when we go glamping is the size of our car. Usually, the tent goes in the Thule top box and the rest finds it's place in the enlarged trunk with the passengerseats down.
We take along a small silent Dometic absorption fridge which works on electricity and the car battery. As such, we can take some things from home and keep them cool during the ride.
Hilleberg Nallo 3 GT
This is our bike touring tent, but we would also use it when we are on the road by car and we just need a sleeping place for the night. With 2 persons, pitching the tent and getting your sleeping gear organised would take about 10 minutes.
Getting the tent up really only requires inserting 3 poles and anchoring 4 pegs and while one person finishes the pitching, the other person can get the bedroom ready for the night.
The Hilleberg Nallo 3 GT tent is an all-season lightweight three person tent with an extended vestibule and 2 entrances.
The tent weighs 3.2 kg, is 4 meters long and 1.60 meters wide.
The inner tent area is 2.20m long and 1.30m (feet) upto 1.60m (head) wide.
The inner tent and footprint can stay attached to the outer tent, allowing you to set up the tent in 1 go in a very short time. Especially very convenient when it rains.
Big Agnes - Copper Spur HV UL3 Bikepack
Our most recent tent has all the features you need when you want to camp on a daily basis, you want enough space inside the tent for your most valuable stuff and you want to keep the weight to an absolute minimum.
Same as with our Hilleberg, we opted for the 3 person model as this provides more room than the 2 person version.
Total weight of the tent, including additional footprint, poles and pegs is 2.25kg
It's also freestanding, access from 2 sides and can be used without the footprint or in combination with the footprint as a freestanding tarp without inner tent. The inner tent has multiple storage options with an oversized ceiling pocket and multiple interior loops.
The tent is not in an exact rectangular shape.
The inner tent is 178cm wide at the head and 157cm wide at the feet. The highest point inside is 109 cm which allows you to sit really straight.
The tent also exists in a normal version with standard poles but the bikepack version has a shortstik pole set of 30 cm which you can more easily stow away in panniers or a backpack or can attach to the bike's handlebars
Vargo No-Fly 2p
Our lightest, smallest and most basic tent. Just 1.25 kg, including the poles and pegs.
The Vargo No-Fly has a floor dimension of 2.18m X 1.44m, wide enough for 2 bigger size sleeping mats and easy access with 2 doors. The tent is a combination of single wall for main dome with mesh at the sides and an integrated rain fly. The rain fly also provides sufficient space for putting your panniers or backpack.
It has 2 poles which slide in to the tent via insertion holes at the corners of the tent.
While it has a freestanding dome for using the tent inside, it is necessary to use pegs if pitched outside.
Pitching the tent can again be done very fast and in rainy weather without wetting the interior.
When we go on a trip for which we do not plan camping, this tent is part of our emergency kit. With a total weight of about 3.5 kg to be distributed over 2 people, we're on the road with this tent, 2 comfy mattresses, air pillow and lightweight down sleeping bags.
An example of good service
The Vargo tent is not widely available in Europe yet and we bought it on the German Webshop www.sackundpack.de
While staying on a campsite, we one day returned in the evening to discover that both tentpoles were broken. While we have no idea what happenend, we were also told that during the day, lots of kids played and cycled around our tent and most probably, someone did fall on the tent.
When Sack Und Pack did not reply to our question where we could find replacement poles, we contacted Vargo in the US directly for help and they immediatly sent us replacement poles, completely for free. No further questions asked. Fantastic service.
Just to compare sizes and weights,
From left to right
Vargo No-Fly 2P : 1,25 KG
Big Agnes Copper Spur UL3 : 2.25 KG
Hilleberg Nallo 3GT : 3.20 KG
Sleeping
Nothing more important than a good night's sleep, so we went for stuff which gives us a good rest with a high level of comfort.
Tour biking:
Mattress: Thermarest NeoAir - All season, with an R-value of 4.9, this mattress allows you to even sleep on frozen underground. It weighs about 820 grams, is 6.3 cm thick and as we opted for the Large version, it has a width of 63 cm.
Sleeping Bag: Cumulus Down Teneqa 700. It has 700 grams of down with a quality of 850 cuin and total weight of 1150 grams. Comfort temperature of -10 celsius with a limit of -18 celsius. We ordered this sleeping bag directly from the factory in Poland.
Inner liner: SeaToSummit, thermoline reactor extreme. It adds about 10 degrees of warmth when used with a sleeping bag but we also use it without the sleeping bag when it is warm outside.
Pillow: Exped Airpillow. So far, the best we have tried out.
Bikepacking or Back packing:
Mattress: Thermarest NeoAir Uberlight, weighing only 340 grams and having again a 63 cm width. The downside is the insulation R value of 2.3, making this a summer-only sleeping pad.
Sleeping Bag: Cumulus Down Lite Line 300. It has 300 grams of down with a quality of 850 cuin and total weight of 600 grams. comfort temperature of 4 celsius with a limit of 0 celsius.
Inner liner: SeaToSummit, Silk traveller, rectangular model with a pillowslip (also for use in hostels, etc...).
Pillow: Exped Airpillow Ultra Light.
Of course, we will also use our bikepacking gear for tour biking in mid-summer, and use our tour biking gear for bikepacking if the weather forecast is less favourable.
Weight per person for Bikepacking set up.
Perfect sleeping comfort for warmer weather.
Mattress, Sleeping bag, Liner and Pillow : 1.2 kg
Weight per person for Tourbiking set up.
Perfect sleeping comfort for any weather type.
Mattress, Sleeping bag, Liner and Pillow : 2.2 kg
Glamping:
As a mattress, we use the Coleman Double Comfort mattress. It has 2 separate air chambers which allows different levels of inflation per person and better absorbs the other person's movements.
This mattress has no real insulation material in it, so when it would be freezing outside, we just put our trekking all-season mattresses on top of it and hold it all together with a fitted sheet.
As a pillow, we usually take along the pillows which we use at home.
Sleeping bags are those used with tour biking or bike packing.
Cooking
When it comes to cooking, we again have different set-ups depending how we travel.
Standard for tour biking and bike packing are our SeaToSummit X-plates and Titanium cutlery set.
As a drinking cup, we use some cheap lightweight mugs which we bought at Mustafa center in Singapore
Bike-packing:
- Primus omnifuel stove with a fuel bottle, if possible filled with odourless white gasoline. If the last one is not available, we use it with normal fuel. In emergencies, you can also fill it up with diesel.
- SeaToSummit 2.8L X-pot and X-pan. When collapsed, the pot fits entirely in the pan
- Trangia tea kettle
- SeaToSummit Ultralight kitchen sink
- Lighter and backup Fire flash
Bike-touring:
- Same Primus omnifuel stove as for bike-packing
- Bo-Camp wok
- Extra canister of gas with a small MSR PocketRocket burner
- Bo-Camp Pot explorer (2 pieces with a lid - smallest canister gas fits in the pots)
- SeaToSummit Light kitchen sink
- Some extra light goblets.
While we drink instant coffee when bikepacking, we will always brew fresh coffee when bike touring.
We take along coffee beans and
- Hario smart grinder
- AeroPress (for brewing the coffee)
Glamping:
When on route with the big tent, it feels like time for a barbecue. Due to the hotter summers, it's not allowed to use barbecues on campsites, so we were looking for a solution.
We found our "Cobb", which is the absolute safe alternative. It can be fully closed and does not get warm on the outside.
With a variety of accessories, you can use it as a barbecue, grill, wok, pizza oven and you can even bake bread.
We also take our Omnifuel burner and use it with gas.
We also still use the first Primus stove set we bought about 15 years ago.
Still does its job very well.
Other
If you do not mind taking just a little less than 1 kg extra for some comfort, The Helinox Chair One is a good choice.
Tips
If possible, we go for small and light.
There is a lot of stuff on which you cannot compromise on size and weight, so we're doing it when it's easy.
On the photo:
Bottle and glass are only there so that you can better see the size of the other stuff.
Under the bottle: Matador Toiletry case (34 gr)
In the glass: our SeaToSummit Airlite Towel XL (125cm X 50cm - 72gr).
Under the glass: Matador soap bar case (11gr).
Next to the glass: mini brush, shortened bamboo toothbrush, and the same soap bar case with soap in it.
