Reminds me of the night I had in Presho, South Dakota this summer! Spent most of the night hunkered down in the men's restroom at the campground I was at. The sirens never went off but the sheriff came by and made everyone spend ~3 hours in the restrooms while the storm passed over. It was disgusting.

That and the night I had in Austin, Minnesota were the only two times I felt like I was in danger my whole trip.

Too many fantastic responses here to quote, but wow! Thanks to every one of you for the help! The comment regarding the "Drip-line" of the Seedhouse SL2 is definitely something to consider if I go that route, but it looks like it's not an issue that isn't easily averted. fietsbob, thanks for the info for an option that can also cover the bike. I think I've settled on finding a reasonably lightweight tarp to cover it with while laying on its side. Ty0604, that's hilarious about the crazy racoon, hopefully not a rabid one though! lol Of course it wouldn't have been hilarious if you had been left with a wrecked tent not being replaced by the manufacturer, or you had been bitten. It's always nice to hear about a manufacturer taking such great care of their customers!

Just to mention again for any who missed it, I'm trying to stay away from tents that have bright eye-popping colors for a few different reasons. If the Hubba Hubba wasn't bright brilliant shinning white and red I'd likely have gone with it, but since MSR has chosen these colors and no other options, it's out of the running. I'm going to look into some of the other options that have been shared here, but as of right now I'm still leaning on the Seedhouse SL2. It looks to have all the functionality I'm looking for and a color scheme I can live with.

To be clear; the rain fly on the Eureka Spitfire is grey so with that on it's not bright, at all.

Totally my fault. I made oatmeal. Fell asleep before I ate it. Woke up with a hole in my tent and the oatmeal gone.

Sierra Design is making the Clip Flashlight again. Great tent at a good price. I sleep with my head at the low end.

What is that model called? I did find some available here, but they were overpriced and not quite what I'm looking for.

I missed that one. It looks really nice. I'm in the process of narrowing down my choices to maybe two right now.

After a whole lot of researching, these are the final 2 choices I've narrowed it down to. These are both no doubt fantastic tents for my purposes and needs, and I don't think I could go wrong with either one of them. The Nemo was a real surprise to me. I don't think I've even heard of that brand before. Looking around, the Nemo is coming up "Out of Stock" almost everyplace I found that carried it. One complaint I've found is that some people have reported condensation issues due to a lack of venting, so that may be a concern. Perhaps that's why it's out of stock at many places. Either people aren't buying it, or maybe Nemo is updating it to resolve that issue. Maybe I'll end up going for the Seedhouse instead.


Big Agnes - Seedhouse SL2

or


Nemo - Dagger 2P

I don't remember.

We arrived in the UK in 2007 with no tent and stayed in hostels until we got to Dunkerque. We knew there was a Decathlon in Dunkerque (we had looked that up), and fortunately we found it ... wandered around ... spotted our tent ... and bought it.

It had several features we wanted including 3-person and only 2 poles, so it was the one.

I've not been able to find one like it on their site or the Decathlon site for a couple years ... their stock and styles have probably moved on.

But the point is ... we made a short list of 4 or 5 things we wanted in a tent, went to sporting goods store, and bought one. So my suggestion is, make a list of what you want, go to REI or whatever other sporting goods stores you've got in your area, and have a look at what's available.

FWIW, I have a Fly Creek UL2 which is a similar design, and I'm NOT a fan of its gently sloping vestibule/doorway or its location on the end of the tent.

As mentioned, the long gentle slope creates a dripline to the waterproof floor of the inner tent, and makes it difficult to cook inside the vestibule in the rain - can't really leave it open due to drips, and closed the fabric hangs close to heat and flames, and of course the fumes.

The ends of a tent always being narrower than the sides means your vestibule-stored gear gets in the way during entry/exit, and you cannot reach the back corners of tent without taking your shoes off, so you end up storing everything cluttered around the doorway.

A more vertically oriented side entry with split vestibule (open one or both sides) solves these problems.

I've been using a Kelty Salida II for several seasons. It's a solid tent and reasonably priced. All of it and the footprint for is fits easily into a single Ortlieb front roller plus pannier. It's a bit heavier than some, but suits my needs well.

I survived 4 extremely windy, heavy rainfall nights on my tour down the west coast last summer in it, snug and dry.

I own two Keltys that are now discontinued but they are designed like the Salida. They continue to be some of my favorites. If you look for sales and coupons, you can pick that Salida 2 up for around $125. Not bad for a roomy well made tent that comes in around 4 lbs.

I also use a Big Agnes Seedhouse. Mine's the SL1.

Thanks for the info. That has me rethinking things a bit now. I didn't think much of it at first, but I can see how something like that could be a real PITA.

+1 on side entry doors. They make it so much easier in many different ways.

That is our tent's large door, providing easy access and spacious gear storage in the split vestibule. The rainfly is drying on a picnic table in the backgound.





A well made light weight tent (not UL)can pack down to a small size and weigh under 4 lb. We also have an UL tent that we use on bike tours, a REI Dash 2, that is very light, but I do not have the same confidence in it as I do the one pictured.

The tent and rainfly are in the blue compression sack. My sleeping bag is in the green compression sack, and a full length Thermarest Pro 4 is in the orange bag.



The tent, sleeping bag, Thermarest, compessible pillow, sil-nylon ground cloth/tarp, and Ortlieb waterproof rack pack weigh less than 10 lb. The same gear will fit into an Ortlieb Backroller (rear) pannier.

I've gone through a handful of different tents.

My main car camping/weight doesn't really matter tent/I'm going to be spending a lot of time in my tent tent is an older REI quarter dome. It's about five years old now, and the current tent bears almost no resemblance to what I have, but it's been through several dozen tours and backpacking trips, plus about three years of fieldwork, and it's still going strong. It's easily had 200 night outside, maybe more.

I used a Sierra Designs Flashlight before, and just couldn't make it work. There are lots of great things about it, it's huge for the weight, the gear closet design is awesome, and actually works well. Unfortunately, I just had a little to much trouble with condensation, and trouble getting a good pitch. I spent a thunderstorm in it, and I the large, flat slope of the tent sagged and filled with water. If I was able to get a better pitch, I might have been able to deal, but getting everything taut is extremely difficult.

If I'm looking to carry less weight, I primarily use a 9X9 flat tarp,ground cloth and bug net. Weighs about half as much as the tent, has a ton of space, but is a lot fussier. I don't think I would use this system if I was going to be in a lot of shared campgrounds as it doesn't offer much privacy. Because it's so modular (and a bit fussy) I find that I only set up what I need. Unless rain looks likely, I'll leave the tarp down, and unless bugs are an issue, I'll just cowboy camp.

As you know, this is all new to me, so I'm trying to make the right choices the first time here, and everyone sharing their experience and knowledge is helping to make that happen. I'm almost completely done with my mechanical upgrades and changes to the bike itself, so that's why I'm now moving onto my touring equipment and supplies, including luggage systems. I'm going with the Ortlieb handlebar bag as you suggested. I'm waiting for the new 2017 flatter version to become available and then I'm getting one. Have you seen them yet? There is also an updated version of the Pro line coming too. I have a loaner Ortlieb handlebar bag to use in the meantime if I can get out on a little tour before then. I just bought my first set of panniers, and I got a great discount thanks to the holiday sale. I went with the new Arkel Orca 45 set, so I will start out with only two panniers and take it from there. Once I receive them I'll have a better idea of what else I'll need to satisfy my storage needs. Thanks again for all of your great help and advice here Doug, I really appreciate it!

I love my North Face Mica FL 2. It's a light-weight 2 person. It's a really roomy 1 person, and I've spent a couple nights comfortably with my girlfriend in it so it actually can be 2 if you keep your gear out in the vestibules. It has a vestibule and decent sized door on each side. My pack weight is ~3lbs.

It looks like it has a yellow vestibule on the site(I never would have bought it if mine were yellow), but mine is grey. Maybe look around if it's a tent you're interested in and see if it comes in grey or if they changed it.

More info, opinions, etc., can be found using the Advance Search function. Search for "tent" in thread titles only, and limit your search to this forum only.

Also works well for "sleeping bag".

We have a winner! [MENTION=160128]1989Pre[/MENTION] ended up having the suggestion that ended up being closest to what I've decided on. Right now, after massive amounts of research and consideration; studying about every tent currently made that would even come close to what I'm looking for, and unless something new crosses my path I like better, this is the tent I'll be getting. It has all the features I'm looking for, including not being a bright eye-popping beach-ball looking thing!

I'm really surprised no one here has one of these. To me it looks to the best tent for roomy one person or cozy two lovers bicycle-touring there is.

Kelty TN2

Just curious why bright green is not eye popping ?

Indeed! It is brighter than I'd like, but not as bad as all the bright red/white and orange/white yellow/white beach-ball looking ones I've seen! lol

I'm guessing not a lot of people have one because it's on the heavy side. I've never had one but I've heard, from friends who have this tent, that the biggest issue is the flat spot in the middle of the roof. Causes rain water to accumulate and then condensation.

With that said, it's hard to find a perfect tent that fits everything you need. Let us all know how it works out after you've used it for awhile.

Just an FYI you can tag users by putting @ in front of their username [MENTION=440430]AdvXtrm[/MENTION]

The Kelty above, less than 28 sq. ft and over 4.5 lbs, you can do better IMO. And again, I like Kelty tents.

At just over 4.75 lbs. packed weight, it's a brick for its size.

And looked at the packed size. 11"x14"? I am hoping that's a "misprint."