First, let me give you the basic details of my tour. I'm gonna start off in aberdeen at the end of june, ride south, get to the mainland, then head north through belgium, netherlands, germany and poland. then i'm gonna start heading south through czech republic, maybe slovakia, austria, switzerland and italy. the timetable is quite loose, but i want to get south before the weather up north gets real bad. so hopefully that'll give you some idea of what i need.
I was looking at these tents:
http://www.rei.com/online/store/Prod...ry_rn=40003461
http://www.rei.com/online/store/Prod...ry_rn=40003461
http://www.rei.com/online/store/Prod...ry_rn=40003461
The last two seem to be technically too long packed for my panniers (ortlieb sport packer plus). The website where i bought the panniers says that they are 15.7 inches high, whereas the last two tents listed are packed at 16 and 20 inches respectively. I bet I could squeeze the 16 incher in there, but not the 20 incher. So for that I would probably have to just strap the tent to my rear rack, right? How do those of you who strap the tent to your rear rack feel about that option?
and if you guys have any other suggestions in this price range (300 is pretty much my upper limit i think), let me know.
Anyway, any general input is welcome. I'm pretty inexperienced with regards to tent buying, so just feel free to give me your thoughts. and if you know of any other online stores that are great for buying this sort of thing, let me know...