Choice of Tent

After a couple of tours staying in bed and breakfasts in 2015 we decided we would have more fun and flexibility on our tours if we camped.  Time to buy a tent,

Requirements:

• Weather proof in all weathers we are likely to encounter
• Fast and easy to assemble and disassemble 
• Light enough
• Small enough for packing
• Plenty of room to sleep
• Enough room to store all panniers /camping kit off bikes
• Will last as long as we are likely to keep touring (good quality)

My original thought was that there were some Vango tents around that seemed to meet the spec, but advice was that we needed to ain for the higher quality range.  This seemed to come down to either MSR or Hilleberg.

After a visit to Taunton Leisure we cam away with a Hilleberg Nano 3 one of the Red label Hilleberg range - "suitable for all seasons in all but the harshest conditions".

The Nano 3 is a "three person" tent (at a squeeze!) but has plenty of room for two.  It packs at around 3kg, and the resulting package is small enough that you could fit two into a standard pannier - or it sits happily on the back rack between panniers.  

But what won it for us was the ease of erecting the tent, especially in foul weather.  At no stage does the inner tent get exposed to the weather, and it all remains attached in one piece.  All you do is lay the tent on the ground, run the three poles through the exterior piping, As soon as the poles are inserted, all you need to do is secure one guy at each end and you have a rigid tent.  The rest of the pegging and guy ropes can all be done later.  Even in the strongest of winds and worst of downpours this can all be done in about 5 minutes by two practiced people.

Taking it down is equally simple.  Take the pegs out.  Take the poles out. Roll it up.  It all rolls up in one piece with the inner tent and footprint still attached.

Here is the Taunton Leisure info:

and this is ours in the field:

It has two entrances  - both open in this picture.

Review after 6 years of use:

Looking today (Nov 2023) at the Taunton website, I had no idea how expensive these tents had become! When we bought it, we thought it expensive at less than half this price!  

We have had very good use out of this tent, in a range of weathers and it must have been erected and taken down well over one hundred times, and travelled a few thousand miles on our bikes. The tent is still in perfect condition,  We did once damage one length of pole slightly due to carelessness when putting it up in a rain storm.  The damaged pole was not beyond use, and easily replaced with the spare provided the following day.  Later, a replacement spare was easily sourced online.  

There is certainly enough room inside for two peoples' camping mats and plenty of clothes and valuable belongings in the inner tent, and more than enough room for all the rest of the camping gear in the vestibule.

The tent has been completely waterproof in all conditions. 

The only criticism that I can make, and have seen others report as well, is that in colder conditions the condensation inside the outer tent can be quite significant; no problem inside the inner tent, but getting out in the morning without shaking all the condensation over everything in the vestibule can be quite challenging.  The tent does dry remarkably quickly as soon as it is opened and hopefully gets a bit of sun,

The headroom is sufficient to sit up and dress.  It is not sufficient to sit on a chair, and on the very few occasions we have been stuck inside the tent because of weather it has been difficult to find a comfortable sitting position for a person who's muscles no longer allow him to sit on the floor without some back support.

I think it is possible that you could get a three person MSR for cheaper and possibly a bit lighter, but the ease and speed of erecting and disassembling this tent has always been a pleasure, and it has always provided ample space.

Aside:

I did read a blog about three men who had taken one of these on a cycle tour (LEjOG if I remember correctly), and they were doing everything they could to reduce weight.  They did without the footprint, removed the string from the pegs, and cut down the number of pegs (in most conditions you do not need to use most of them).  And they did not take the bags for the pegs, poles or tent.  I guess this all saved them a few hundred grams for very little loss of facility?