I'm looking for ways to cut weight for the next tour as well as avoid more broken tent poles, and the biggest way seems to be going from my 5 lb REI quarterdome tent to either a bivy sack or hammock. I've returned the tent and groundtarp to REI for full store credit (I LOVE that) so my price range is sub $200, and something that REI carries.

I was specifically looking at the $139 dollar hennessy hammock REI carries because of the larger rainfly.

Still, I'm uncertain as to whether I should go hammock or bivy. The bivy would be nice for winter camping but the vast majority of my trips will be 3 season. On my last bike tour, nearly every site we camped had trees for hanging a hammock with only a few exceptions. Flat ground on the other hand, was sometimes hard to come by.

Thoughts? Any bivy-hammock converts?