Originally Posted by
staehpj1
Personally I am not a hammock fan at least for bike touring. I have backpacked in places where a hammock would have been nice due to lack of a flat spot or boulder strewn or swampy land. I can see that some may prefer a hammock for comfort and that is a good reason to use one. Generally for me either a bivy, a bivy and tarp, or a light tent are usually lighter than a hammock and plenty comfortable.
For people who a hammock makes sense for, I'd suggest that you can usually find a support for at least one end. In that case you can use the bike for the other end if you can manage strong enough anchor points in the ground. Using it as a bivy is also fine if you have a sleeping pad. I rather do that than carry the weight of the Handy Hammock.
I think we can go overboard on weight savings.
I was strictly a backpacker into my late 20s, so worked to go lighter and lighter with each trip, even resorting to counting out squares of toilet paper. Then I switched to canoeing, which is a very different animal. I still pack lighter than many for canoe trips (no saws, no axes, minimal cookware, a twig burner and small trangia burner instead of a larger stove, etc.), but I don't shave ounces (and my tripping canoes are an 18' 1925 Old Town Otca that weighs about 95 lbs, but portages beautifully because it is so well balanced, and a much lighter but still not featherweight 15' Will Ruch Minetta for solos that comes in at about 48 lbs). I've found that a pound or five extra makes no difference to me. I can't imagine that I would notice the less than three pounds for the handy hammock stand sans hammock.
My suspicion is that paring weight is more about telling others how little our "kit" weighs than it's about a difference that translates to any speed advantage.