Hello all,

I am the owner/designer of the Tarptent product line. Forgive this hiker's intrusion into the bike touring lair but I am looking for a little feedback about shelter needs for bike touring. Not having been on a long bike tour, I would very much like to get a sense of how the shelter needs of hikers differ from the shelter needs of people doing bike tours.

Thanks for asking. All of the opinions are mine. I make no claim to speak for anyone else.

We get interest from people doing bike tours and one specific request that comes up is for shorter poles to fit bike panniers--something we can accomodate now with a special pole order. My understanding is that most bike panniers will accomodate about a 15" long tent stuffsack. Is that correct or is there a longer/shorter maximum length? Do panniers vary much in size and do most bike people doing bike tours use panniers or do many people opt for trailers?

Personally, I never packed a tent in a pannier. It always rides on the rear on top of my panniers and rack, along with my sleeping bag and ground pad, all suitably bagged, of course.

How important is free-standing vs. fully stakeable without extra poles? I'm well aware that bikers don't carry trekking poles.

Free-standing is better - more flexible in application. But make it stakable, in case of wind.

Is ultralight important or is weight, give or take a pound or two, really not that important?

Depends on who you are aiming at. For a few days or a week, I'm more concerned about keeping weight down to a bare minimum. For longer trips, some extra total weight of all gear is expected, and I am more likely to tolerate a somewhat heavier tent if it means extra durability - a two-week-plus trip is a major investment in time (and in my case, lost income), so it cannot go south because of equipment failures.

Do most bike tourers opt for solo shelters or are 2-person shelters more prevalent/useful?

I have always opted for a pretty spacious two-man tent. I like having all my gear (other than the bike) inside with me.

Do you bring your bikes inside a shelter or just cover them up in the rain at night or just leave them out (because your shelter wont cover them)?

The bike sleeps outside. I have sometime had a purpose-made plastic bike cover along, but I have never tried to bring the bike inside a tent and am hard-pressed to imagine when I would on a tour. Inside a motel, absolutely. Inside a tent, no.

Are there any other "gotta have" features in the current list of available shelters and/or are there features that you need (and can't find) to make your touring shelter work better?

The other posters have hit it pretty well. Bug-proof is essential. Ditto water-proof. Good ventilation is only a tiny little bit less important.

Thanks in advance for any help you can offer.

Good luck in this venture. Very smart piece of thinking, by the way, getting the benefit of a free focus group of bikies.

Henry Shires
Tarptent