That is a function of the bivy screen... though my research indicates that coconut oil (especially when combined with eucalyptus/tea tree oil) repels the little buggers. Excellent moisturizer, too.

Digger digger digger, you come with us in early summer and you tell that to the black flies, in fact you can yell that at them as they carry you away to the funny farm...
If you aren't Canadian and haven't done outdoor stuff in the woods, you'll probably take that the wrong way.....

A tarp and a bivy might end up being heavier or more volume than a single walled tent. If you use the hammock instead of the bivy the setup could also get heavy depending on the type of hammock and the number of quilts you need to take.

I routinely forget that we all come from different setups... having no reality concept of what ya'll go through above about 32 degrees latitude :o


My "bug out"/retirement plan if stranded in the U.S., started with that thread on the weatherman showing where 70F weather is all the time. I modified this to where the weather is low 60- high 80 degrees F throughout the year. This is my riding temp comfort zone. Two routes showed promise: Both start with living in Brownsville, TX from Nov-March. Both travel through Austin to Dallas, following the nice temps. One then travels through Tulsa, KC and up to Minneapolis for July-August (or staying on the road to Milwaukee) before turn around. The second is more ambitious, by heading west, through Denver, the Divide, Salt Lake, and up to Portland for Jul-Aug, or on up to Seattle, before turning around. So this is all stuck in my mind....


My other egg-head research is an internet attempt to use the least products in the most ways. Vinegar, Baking Soda (maybe ammonia) and Coconut Oil (along with a couple essential oils) have amazing properties/uses for self-sustained travel. Course whether or not the plan survives combat, is another story to be tested in the field.


This is the tent (or copy of the tent) I will be using, under a tarp, when not in a hammock: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000...chweb201603_53

Weather and climate are not the same. What are you going to do when it's 103 degrees in somewhere like Iowa as you are heading towards MSP? Or 95 degrees in central Oregon during the day and in the 30s at night, even in September. Been to both. Done them. Got the t-shirts.

Bugs
 

Here, in the NE of US, rain averages almost an inch per week, in the Summer, insects are an issue, so a tent has a lot to recommend it.
Alan S, is that a NEMO tent in your picture?

Maybe you are looking at the green camp chair. The tent is in the red bag, MSR Hubba NX-2.

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...fda01c930.jpeg

All good questions. The theory stage (now) is based on average temps and rainfall. Though, as another contributer said, adjusting for contingencies is part of the fun/challenge.

Yup. The netting in my tent door looked like this on my bike tour this past summer.

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...2ae02c4e7e.jpg

Damn! That remind me of at least one place. Strawberry Lake in MN. I nearly ingested a few while eating breakfast the next morning. When I unpacked my tent at the end of the day there were blood spots on it from the mosquitoes that got crushed when I packed it up.

Many a blood splotch have been on our tents over the decades...

Cycommute, what size rear panniers are on the Cannondale?

They are Ortlieb front and rear rollers. Front is 25L per pair and 40L per pair for the rear

I grew up in Minnesota, mosquitoes are the unofficial state bird. But the photo was either from Nova Scotia or Prince Edward Island, not sure which.

What really surprised me was how many of the mosquitoes that were in the tent when I packed it in the morning survived for a day in the packed tent and were moving around in it when I made camp at night.

This year I tried the repellent Picaridin, it worked pretty well. Theoretically that does not damage your equipment like Deet can, and I did not observe any damage to anything from using it.
https://www.rei.com/product/887628/s...lotion-4-fl-oz

But there were one or two campsites where the bugs were so thick that I reverted to the tiny bottle of 100 percent Deet that I brought as a backup plan.

[QUOTE=Tourist in MSN;21259860]
This year I tried the repellent Picaridin, it worked pretty well. Theoretically that does not damage your equipment like Deet can, and I did not observe any damage to anything from using it.
https://www.rei.com/product/887628/s...oz [/QUOTE]
Might have to give that a try. I have ruined some shorts with DEET. I really saw what it can do from a can of Off left in a box in my damp basement for years. The can started to corrode and some of the liquid leaked out. In the same box were some spare audio cables. The DEET melted the outside plastic covering.

Way back in my backpacking days while experimenting with a tarp, I spent a very miserable night trying to sleep in the middle of a cloud of mozzies while in a sleeping bag during a very hot summer night. The only reason I lived to tell the tale was due to a packet of Coleman mosquitio coils I kept going all night long

thats a good point, my tent just packs away in a stuff sack so you don't have to do too much folding while packing away but that can come back to bite you when setting up in a storm and everything is twisted all over the place 😆

That depends to some degree on what kind of bivy you use. Some of the hooped bivys are heavy. The bivys I use are more like a loose sleeping bag cover. My bug bivy weighs about 5.3 ounces and my regular bivy weighs 7 ounces. There may be tents that get close depending on what tarp I take, but only if I take a bigger heavier tarp and compare with one of the very lightest possible tents. I will note that none of my stuff is the very lightest most expensive fabrics so it wasn't particularly expensive coompared to other setups even heavy ones.

Cool mini panniers.
Can’t read the name, though
Rock.....?

Either go light or go comfortable. Commit one way or the other. If you're going for streamlined bikepacking setup like this, you might as well go all the way an use a ultralight bivy sack. If you want to do this kind of sporty setup, but nevertheless insist on bringing along the usual perk items such as a full blown tent, then all you're going to end up with is a monstrosity setup with a bunch of dumb mushrooms strapped everywhere. "Pouchitis". That bike will be crying out for a mercy killing. To answer your question: you're going to have to get some rope and strap that tent somewhere, anywhere. Wherever you can get it to not fall off.

Don't use a cheap tent. Buying a trash tent is like marrying the first trash person you meet. It might be easy at first, but by day two you'll realize you've ****ed yourself bigtime.

RockBros. They are the small handlebar pocket in the link. 5 to 6 L per side. They are actually meant to be used as a front pocket on bikepacking bags. I use an Ortlieb bracket for my trunk bag and adapted these to that adapter.
https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...169101a40.jpeg

They use velcro straps to hold in place on the handlebar so I adapted them.

https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...90998ad51.jpeg
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...a08c0501c.jpeg
https://cimg4.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...883df54a7.jpeg

I’ve got larger panniers (but much smaller than regular front panniers) from Mesabi that are a little larger. I kind of like the small ones, however.

Here’s those in the wild.

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...56d67c6d9.jpeg

Salut CC,

Thanks, that’s a clever idea, you had.
Before I asked, I tried my luck with Google starting with “Rear Mini pannier” unsuccessfully, then I thought, maybe they are front panniers installed on a rear rack but Nope.
No wonder I couldn’t find what these cool “panniers” were.
;-)
Much flatter than “proper” rear mini panniers, no protruding bulge at the rear.
I might copy that.

I think that the OP in 2019 was asking about how to pack his tent poles not the tent itself.

For whatever it's worth; I cut the fiberglass rods (that form the hoops of my tent) in half and then added a brass end (the same diameter as the originals) to the cut piece. Then I replaced the interior shock cord (much easier to do with the shorter rods). The poles are now much more compact when packed and can go on either the front or rear rack.

Cheers

One advantage of a free standing tent is that in rain you can pitch it under a roofed area of a campsite, then just carry it to your spot.

Easier to move if your spot gets waterlogged too.

If I understand, your question is not where to put it but how to put it in there. I found it best to just take a corner of the rainfly, and push it into the bag without folding or rolling it. After you have shoved the whole thing down and compacted the air out, take the tent section and push it in randomly as well, just pushing it down until it's squeezed down as much as possible. This makes sense after you've done it a few times. It's something I learned from years of working with Boy Scouts. Folding and/or rolling the tent to put it away will create creases that get used over and over and the fabric will eventually weaken and leak at those points. Just stuffing it into the bag is not only easier, it will make the tent last longer. I also carry the poles separately on the outside of my saddlebag.

Marc