Originally Posted by
xyzzy834
... I don't understand the concern about carrying normal length tent poles on a bike. One of the big advantages a bike has over backpacking is that bulk (up to a point) doesn't matter. That's not so much true for weight, but for bulk, strap it on the rear rack behind you and ride. You won't know it's there.
I have about 12.5" (L) X 5.5" (W) of rear rack area on my bicycle. Let's say I used a tent with 25" segmented poles. To me (and maybe I'm way off here), it seems like if I load the tent on the rack crosswise, that it would be kind of tippy from end to end ... not to mention sticking out a foot on each side of the bicycle. I've seen it happen before with tents loaded this way, where the gear inside the tent bag shifts every time a sharp corner is turned. Maybe it just wasn't packed tight enough in that case. ??
On the other hand, if I loaded the 25" long tent pack on the bicycle lengthwise, it would be at least twice as long as the length of the rack, if not more. In that case, I almost feel like I should hang one of those red warning flags on the end of the tent pack. (I'm being sarcastic).
But I guess if that's what people are doing, then that's an okay way to go. I'm just trying to know what I'm doing before I make an expensive (to me) purchase.