Hillebergs are amazing tents, I've had a few, but for 99% of touring they are way overkill and you are just carrying extra weight for nothing, unless you really have the possibility to encounter extreme cold, snow, or severe storm in the middle of nowhere.

FWIW, my current favorite design comes from Sierra Designs, but I've found Big Agnes to make great stuff too. I've had bad luck with MSR and Marmot, and those are all the brands of tents I've had haha.

I always put my tent on the top part of the front rack. It fits there perfectly, but obviously you need to have a front rack with a top.

I have carried for a while now a poncho that doubles as a tarp. I don't use as primary part of my shelter for exactly that reason, but I have used it to supplement my existing tarp when I wanted a little extra rain/wind block. But, yeah, once you do that, you're stuck under the shelter if you want to stay dry.

That's what I use, but I haven't tried it on drop bars. Well, actually I use the harness and Saltyroll because that gives me the ability to carry other items on occasion or use a different size bag.
https://www.revelatedesigns.com/inde...ndlebarharness

Nice thing that as long as your tent poles collapse to at least the width of your handlebars, it's easy to fit them in as well. I stuff my hammock and usually my top quilt into the dry bag, then a couple of poles that I use with my tarp slide in between the bag and the harness straps.

In bug free environments I could kinda maybe see it. Up in Minnesota, where I do most of my touring (and canoeing) it just wouldn't work. I've also had canoeing trips in particular when it rained a lot (on one 14 day solo it rained each of the first 8 days out). The couple extra pounds my hammock weighed were worth it. Same with my Hilleberg Enan, which comes in under 2.5 lbs. If I need to drop two pounds I'll drop it around my waist. Having said that, however, I'm glad people experiment and try different things. A lot of helpful innovation would be lost without that.

Don't know if you saw the photo link in my OP but I use the inner net tent so have a fully enclosed double-wall shelter quite similar to the Enan. Not sure how the NE Appaliachians (Catskills and Green/White Mountains) compare MN, but it's far from bug-free. One of my favorite 'features' of this floorless mid is a unique 'self bailing' bug action - actually I keep my inner net tent collapsed except for sleeping (probably wouldn't need it at all, but I still have a creepy crawly phobia while obliviously asleep). I also own a BA Fly Creek UL2, and this thing out outperforms it in every way, except freestanding (pain to set-up in a lean-to, or on a platform).

But of course, to each his own... they are all good.

Yes, I did see that. Your 13 oz, however, is actually 13 + 11 (the Serenity Nettent) + weight of pole and stakes. So it's within a few ozs of the Hilleberg Enan. There's the weight of a rain jacket, in my case a Rab Latok Alpine, 18 oz, but I'd take the versatility, especially since my Rab jacket is also wind shell in addition to being my rain jacket.

Hillebergs are some of the best designed and constructed tents on the market. But until they start using Cubin Fiber/Dyneema at least in the Rain Fly I will use my Trailstar (https://mountainlaureldesigns.com/product/trailstar/) by MLD. It works like layered clothing if bug netting is necessary add a bivy or bug enclosure, add flooring if you like. Great ventilation with multiple setup configurations. Wait a year or so until the big manufacturers are forced to start selling Cubin Fiber just to keep a foot in the door.

Ya, I think a lot of manufacturers/people are still impacted by the original sticker shock of cuben fiber when it came out. It was so insanely expensive that it seems like it got written off forever. How is the durability of it? I've only just looked, never used it.

Just use polytarps for your shelter and you'll be deaf before you get to the pad.

You did not state where you are and what kind of climate you'll be camping in. Are there any mosquitoes and do you need to sleep off the ground due to rain forest type animals, bugs and insects and especially snake prone areas?

If you need to sleep off the ground, I would recommend a hammock and IMHO the best at this moment (in terms of price, weight and completeness) would be the Hennessy Hammocks. Hennessy have hammocks to cater for certain body weights, 3 or 4 season, bottom or side entry and so on. Hennessy comes with a Tarp, mozzy netting and a hammock and is ready out of the pack to be used. I have a bottom entry for 3 season for the last 10 years and still looks new. Its less than US$400.00.

If you don't need to sleep off the ground, get a Tarp, sleeping bag, ground sheet, some pegs and learn to do all types and shapes of tarp shelters.
I do own a SNUGPAK All Weather Shelter and able to do so many types of setups, some of which could even stand a rain storm (not hurricanes of course).

With both these shelters, you can keep an eye on your bike (chained to a tree that is) regularly and can even bring your bike under the shelter, close to you if need to.

So let me share on my bike camping equipment and how I carry them.
1. Tent/hammock/ground sheet wrapped in tarp and carried in a diy harness under my handle in front of my fork.
2. Either my Esbit or Trangia alcohol stove and cookset with coffee/sugar in the cookset in my tail/seatpack. Food only rice with salted fish or oats and milk or flour for bannocks.
3. A pair of clean clothes (columbia and a cycling short) in the same pack.
4. First Aid in the same pack
5. Bike tools, survival kit and water in my frame pack.

Cuben fiber isn't hugely more expensive than other materials intended for the same purposes. But construction is a totally different process than sewing panels together. Because of the different weights that Cuben/Dyneema come in it is hard to discuss durability. At its strongest Dyneema is used to construct huge sailboat sails, no durability problems but not light either. At its most light Cuben fiber tarps won't stop a branch from tearing them. Manufacturers are worried about pack straps and belt wear points using Dyneema. Remember that it is a truly "Waterproof" material even at its thinnest. It is a little on the loud side. Anyone that has heard rain hitting a saturated tent while trying to sleep, like canvas or nylon, learns to love hearing drops explode on the surface of Cuben fiber. At material weights used for backpacking, it is semi-transparent. This has Pro's and Con's: Pro - Can see approaching shadows threw the material. Con - Project silhouettes while changing clothes at night... wait, maybe I am mixing them up. The prices will crash once demand grows and the big players fully invest. If you do any wet weather camping a Cuben tarp is priceless.

Doubting Thomas
 

I have noticed that people that "Don't", always doubt the word of others that "Do". I have used a lot of manufacturer photos in my posts because I shoot at around 10mp and Bikeforums can't handle them. So here is a pic. of MY hammock (Amok) hanging in the Malheur National Forrest. I rode down to watch the 2017 Eclipse. Anything else I mentioned that you have doubts about Thomas?

Late isn't always better than never.

It is for anyone that really "Does". Late is always better than never for someone that really does something. You keep "talking" that what you seem best at.

so with all these sleeping air pads, is there none on the market that makes use of our bicycle pumps?

No answer for that.

With Thermarest at least the problem would be the mattress valve interface. I have the Scout and if you let it lay it out for a bit it's self inflating with the addition of only a couple of breaths so no pump needed.

that sure seems like it would be a good idea. So I rigged up an adapter from my Topeak Morph pump to my REI flash sleeping pad. The pump did inflate my pad but it took a lot longer, and was more work than just blowing it up with my mouth so I've never tried it again.

mike

Hmm and the road Morph mtb Morph are some of the better pumps.. :crash:

Bicycle pumps are designed for high pressure/low volume whereas air mattresses are the opposite - low pressure/high volume. You won't want to carry any bicycle pump that has enough volume to efficiently inflate an air mattress.

Lots of neat ingenious ways to inflate air mattresses these days, some out of necessity to keep the internal down/synthetic insulation from getting wet from breath moisture. Some use silnylon stuff sacks with a mating valve to connect to the mattress - you loft air into the stuff sack, pinch it closed, and then squeeze the air from the stuff sack into the mattress. Some mattresses have a built-in hand pump in the corner - basically a larger internal rubber bulb with one way valves that work like the old blood pressure monitors. Thermarest has this SV valve which uses the Bernoulli Principle to inflate a larger mattress with 4-5 easy breaths.

Pumps for road bikes are designed for HP/LV. Mountain bike pumps are more focused on HV/LP and now fatbike pumps such as the Lezyne Micro Floor Digital XL which I have and carry bikepacking on my fatbike are even more about volume. Now that could possibly be used to blow up a mat, but mind you, I wouldn't bother using as I use the stuff sack method along the lines you mentioned.

On the subject of pumps for sleeping mats, I just got an email from Massdrop that has the Klymit Rapid Air Pump listed. Never come across these before so know little about them. Still may be an option for some if the price is right.

https://massdrop-s3.imgix.net/produc...1024095936.jpg

So true.
You can pick up a very worthy 2 man tent for just under $100 so why risk getting wet and bugs?

Oh, and one other thing to consider about hammocks, and I do like hammock camping, is that I'm finding more and more state parks don't want you hanging anything on the trees, including hammocks, and they make for somewhat crummy bivies.

New option
 

The Sansbug is another option that I got for an excellent price in my opinion. It is a pop-up fully enclosed tent. They won't take rain but I have a couple great rainfly/tarps that will work great over one or two fo these babies if necessary. You may be able to find a single enclosed tent a little lighter (if you do it will be 3 to 5 times the cost) but you won't find one faster or easier to erect. I stopped this fall during a ride and took a nap in mine. After opening and closing this tent 10 or 15 times it shows no wear. At $50 how good can it be right? So far, so good.

https://www.sansbug.com/

I use insulated Exped air mats that fit both my hammock and tent very well. They both came with the Exped Schnozzel Air pump. A large thin cloth bag with an Exped integrated connection nozzle. Scoop the bag full of air, seal the end, connect to the pad and press the air into the pad. After a few times, you can fill the pad with two or three bags at most, I count them as push-ups. The bag can be used as a mildly waterproof stuff sack or fill and use as a pillow. The material its made of weighs almost nothing. I just roll it up with the sleeping bag or Rumpl that I slept in. For true weight weenies, a pump of any kind isn't really necessary with today's air pads. It's not like the 15 lb. hand-me-down rubber Colman air mattress I used as a kid. It would take 10 or 12 attempts to fill it and that was if I didn't pass out with the rubber cork out and have to start over. Or your dumb ass siblings didn't let the air out as you slept... wait, that was me.

Schnozzel Pumpbag UL M | Exped USA