benajah

For what you are looking for there are a ton of choices. Basically a standard, freestanding, 2 person backpacking tent with a vestibule large enough to cook in....go in any backpacking store and throw a dart at the tent section, 70% chance you will hit something that will work for you.
I have a North Face Frog that rocks. It is 4 lbs, so a little heavy, but roomy, very big vestibule, and totally freestanding, only need to stake it in windy weather.

djb

will not be specific for models, but will repeat what some people have already mentioned.

for me, a 2 person tent is my pref (being solo in it) as there is more room to have your panniers in with your and organize your stuff, plus if you take a day off, or wait out rotten weather, its less claustophobic. As mentioned, if you are with a partner that you would be sharing a tent, then splitting up heavy common stuff is even more advantageous with a larger tent (other person can take campstove or whatever if you have tent)

free standing ones are always handy as previously mentioned for setting up on a hard surface, cement, wood, etc. I have set up under shelters or whatever when the weather has been horrible and the campsite didnt mind and/or other times camping with wood platforms.

ditto for holding the tent upside down to get dirt etc out.

the tent I used touring was a bit heavy 7lbs, others mentioned 4.5 lb 2 person tents, every bit of weight saved bike touring is for the good.

reasonable sized to good sized vestibules are always a plus.

2 doors for ventilation always good too

good tent hunting

electrik

Not to step in it, but I have heard those big agnes water-proof silicone coatings aren't great in total storm-force downpours... After using some crap tents in the rain i would be angry to have to wake up at 2am in the soaking wet!

Anybody know why these people are reporting that? Does the silicone coating wear off quickly?

djb

a well designed tent with a good coverage fly, and a properly designed lower section, and seam sealed, will keep you dry even in relative rivers. tent designs are quite good nowadays, not expensive ones either.

lvleph

I made a ray-way tarp and net tent.
https://www.rayjardine.com/ray-way/Tarp-Kit/index.htm

benajah

All good reasons for a free standing tent. My current tent is not free standing, and although I love it, it is my first non-freestanding tent and I do miss the feature, especially for shaking out when breaking camp.

Newspaperguy

If you're camping in North America, it's not a good idea to cook in your tent. Those wonderful cooking scents get into the fabric and they attract bears and other wildlife. It's also not a good idea to have any food at all in your tent. The scent of the food will draw wildlife. If need be, carry a spare tarp to use as a shelter if you're cooking in rough weather.

My tent is a Moonshadow Duo. It's billed as a two-person tent, but two people sharing this tent should be very good friends. For me alone, it's got the length I need and it's got enough room, but it packs small and light. It's not a freestanding tent, however. If you go with freestanding, you'll add a bit more weight to your total.

electrik

Seconded...

Cooking in your tent?? Yeah, it will take not long to receive CO poisoning, not to mention melting the tent or the large animals that might open it up like a thanksgiving turkey looking for the stuffing.

djb

third that, my kids have been told that since they were , well, kids. You dont want a bear incident, and most likely you will end up with a raccoon or mouse incident which is a drag if your tent gets damaged, hole chewed through etc.

but again, you really really dont want a bear smelling the tuna cassarole you cooked in your tent weeks, months or who knows how long ago but he or she bear can smell.

do-well

what are people's take on single skin versus double skin (or whatever terminology you prefer)?

Yan 

With double skin tents, you can take off the fly on a clear night and look at stars.

I've been touring with a Quarter Dome T2 Plus for twelve weeks now. Point form is the easiest:

THINGS I LIKE
It has kept me totally dry through some serious SE Asia monsoons and puddle submersions
The internal pockets/loops are great for organization and laundry line tying
The dual doors make it very easy to stash all your stuff on one side and enter through the other
Each door has it's own vestibule, so there is plenty of room for two people's gear

THINGS I DONT LIKE
It takes forever to set up compared to my Hennessy Hammock
The mesh is vulnerable to abrasion damage while packed. I've had to repaif a hole by sewing

aggro_jo

I can only speak from personal experience and I have been caught in two giant downpours in my BA tent. One had literally an inch deep stream flowing around the tent and another had wind gusts up to 40 mph. In both instances I was dry as a bone.

benajah

Thats what vestibules are for.
It also depends on what kind of cooking. Making coffee and ramen wont draw yummy scents into the fabric so much. making up bacon and eggs is a different story.

benajah

It really depends a lot on the weather where you are. Single skin backpacking tents (not tarps or big pyramid type tents) are generally not very well ventilated so you tend to get a lot of condensation. Double wall tents with a mesh tent+rainfly are much better for 90% of the weather you see in North America...but the downside is they are heavier and take longer to pitch. Its all tradeoffs.
I use a single skin Outdoor Research bivy sometimes, love it, but you have to leave the zipper a little undone or you will have water dripping on your head.
I have several double wall backpacking tents, a NF and a Black Diamond and a Walrus and love them but they are all ultralight, rather expensive versions.
Don't have a Hennessey but do use a Clark Jungle Hammock sometimes, which is basically a suspended double wall tent. Works great in forested areas but is a tad heavy (built to be really durable).
The thing about a single skin tent, is to get one that is really well ventilated, you are generally going to pay a bit more, as good single wall tents tend to be really top of the line. A well ventilated one is difficult to make which is why for most of the last 30 years they were most common among alpine climbers.
These days they are getting more popular due to trickle down tech making them easier to make affordable.

do-well

thanks benajah. very informative and helpful.

djb

and to add, I have camped, canoe camped (trips where one travels by canoe each day, set up camp, move on---hey, just like bike touring) my whole life, and then did bicycle touring.

I have never used a one wall tent, here in N. America, the vast vast majority of tents are with a inner section with some meshing (some more than others) with a waterproof floor and sides that extend up to perhaps a foot high, then a waterproof "fly" that fits over the top, but with airspace between it and the non waterproof area part of the main body, for ventilation. Some tents designs have better ventilation in general, with less condensation, but frankly, any reasonably priced tent bought at an outdoor supplier type store will be well designed for ventilation, rain-storm-wind resistance and ease of putting up.

other than the pricey single walled tents that backbackers sometimes use, these types are usually youir cheapie tents, not good materials, and most often seen used by people who do not camp much.

as for "putting up time" my 2 person tent , free standing , that Iused on all my bike trips years ago, was a Sierra Designs tent, reasonable design, good in rain, if I wanted to not put up the "fly", and it was dry, i could.
It takes only a few minutes to put up, 2 main poles, bingo. I recall timing it once on a bike trip and it was something like 2- or 3 minutes....not long, and this is a 20 yr old tent. Many tents today are slightly better, lighter etc etc and not super expensive.

think of it this way, you buy a crap tent for 50 dollars, its crap, you get wet, poles break or whatever, you hate it, you toss it out etcetc

you spend 200 or 300 on a well designed tent by a known tent company, it works better, its good in,rain, you have better ventilation, the zippers dont break cuz the quality of parts are better, you keep for years.....bingo, happy as a clam and cheaper in the long run.

believe me, if you are bike touring and have biked all day, youdont want to screw around with a cheap poorly designed tent that means you cant sleep soundly knowing that if it rains in the night, you wll have wet stuff , sleeping bag etc etc that you will need to pack up wet.......yuck!

I realize younger people may not have as much money to spend on stuff, but basic stuff like a tent, get a reasonable one and it will serve youwell AND encourage you to keep on doing outdoor stuff as you wont be soaking wet and pissed off cuz the zippers broke in the middle of your bike trip.

In my humble opinion, take it as you wish.

electrik

That is good to hear.. i've have 1" streams flowing around my sleeping-mat in some tents(older ones admittedly)!

Well, i wouldn't. In bear country i even keep toothpaste and anything smelly outside of the tent, that includes coffee. Call me paranoid, but so far the only issues have been clever raccoons. Cooking in the vestibule is a bit safer from the CO perspective since the real danger with that is the water-proof bath-tub in the tent collects all the CO(heavier than air) and as soon as you lie down it's nighty nite.

Newspaperguy

If you travel exclusively in an area where bears and other animals are not a problem, you might be okay, but I still wouldn't chance it. Wildlife can be a problem almost everywhere in Canada and in many parts of the U.S. Why put yourself at any increased risk?

benajah

I didn't say leave the stuff in the tent, but if you are sitting out a multiday storm you don't have much choice if you want to eat. I generally travel in bear areas, but I only cook in the tent when I have to, I just sort of reject the idea of "never under any circumstance cook in the tent" kind of thing.

fietsbob

Black diamond's Megamid, and the Mozzy net inner tent are not freestandoing, would need staking down at the 4 corners , but they are a Pyramid shape with a square floor , floor is sewn into the mozzy shelter , so you can fold up the sides to get abundant ventilation one center pole . hard surfaces a bag filled with rocks will substitute, for a tent stake ,
If there is no significant wind to speak of . good shape for run off and wind spillage .

Capt Scott used a Pyramid tent for their ill fated race to the south pole with Amundsen, in 1912
when they found his tent, it was still up, after an antarctic winter or so.