Will be pulling the trigger on a tent soon and my wife and I started doing more search. Some questions popped up that we need some help with:

1- What as an acceptable weight of a tent in regards to carrying it on a bike for a tour? This assumes one person will take the whole tent.
2- What is preferable... a tent with stakes or a free standing tent?


We are looking at two companies so far.... one is REI and the other is Helleberg. http://www.hilleberg.com/usa.htm

With Helleberg, they are a local company (to where we used to live) and are very nice. A lot of people have spoken highly of them and the quality.

The concern I have with REI is reliability of the tent over a period of time. The Helleberg tents, as you can see, cost more then any of the REI tents. But I wonder why. Is it the material and fabric? OR???? Basically, my wife wants to be something of great quality, wont leak, and something that will really last us a long time.

Would love thoughts, suggestions, advice, etc.