Agreed. Also I haven't heard of many hammock campers who haven't tried tents, but I know of plenty of tent campers who have never tried camping in a hammock. I don't consider those tent campers closed minded. I just figure they found what works for them and are sticking with it. If I had been happy and comfortable sleeping on the ground, I might have never tried sleeping in a hammock either. But now that I have, I will generally go the extra mile to it possible to spend the night in my hammock, because I know what I prefer.

In any case, limiting yourself to what you carry on your bike for an extended period of time is going to force you to set some priorities. Some people prioritize lightweight to the point that they take little more than a tarp. Some people prioritize comfort to the point that they stay in hotels. Both choices seem valid to me, and I'm happy with the balance that I've struck as well. I would love to get my hands on that portable hammock stand and see if I found it worth the weight/hassle. Maybe it wouldn't be, but I am guessing that my alternate step would be make a plan for going to ground with my hammock when necessary. Is my mind closed to the idea of sleeping in a tent? Only to the extent that I have tried both, and I know my preference. There are ways to make tent camping more comfortable, but even with my most comfortable tent camping set up, I never remember a temptation to pull out my sleeping gear and ditch the bed in favor of a sleeping pad in the living room. But with my hammock, and my wife out of town, I have attempted to do just that. And I know of people who have permanently set hammocks up in their home as a place to sleep. I feel like that says volumes about how comfortable some folks find sleeping in a hammock.

But for most people, "camping" still means sleeping in a tent, or at least on the ground in some fashion, maybe under or on top of a tarp. So if you're going to buck that trend and try an alternative method, and then look for innovative solutions to increase the versatility of your alternative method, then I'm going to say that whatever else you may be, you're probably not close-minded.

I think you misread my post.

First - True I have not camped with a Hammock, but I have tried laying in one and even took a nice nap, I think it was a Hennessy if I remember correctly. I made the decision that it was good comfort wise, but so is a high quality sleeping pad. The owner was very nice in allowing me to try it out. Based on that experience I didn't feel the need to make the move for comfort reasons. I compared the numbers and it came in heavier than my other shelter setups, so I didn't make the move for weight reasons.

Second, I did not say I would never use one. I said that "for my style of bike touring I don't think I will ever use one". My tours typically have had a largish portion that was either in the plains or the desert. I just did not find a compelling advantage that would make it the right choice for that kind of touring. You would likely do the same given the following statement you made:

I have gone coast to coast a couple times, ridden most of the Pacific Coast, and done some other longish tours. In all of that I met a lot of touring cyclists especially since some of that was on very popular routes. I don't recall seeing a single bike tourist on any of those routes using a camping hammock. So I don't think choosing a tent, bivy, or tarp for those routes is an unreasonable choice. I suspect some of the stealth campers may have used one and I wouldn't have seen them, but I try to avoid the need for stealth since I prefer to camp for free in plain sight and most of the places I tour can do so much of the time. So stealth isn't a big reason for me to go to one.

I don't care much for touring in the east or in western Washington state or I might consider one for there. The only time I tour in either of those locales is on a tour where they are a small portion of the trip.

If I were to do a lot more backpacking in the areas like where I saw quite a few hammocks and was envious, I'd definitely consider buying one. I wouldn't do it for the very few trips that I currently do in such places.

As I said earlier the use of a Spreader and tensioned Lines to resist the pole bending , under compression , does seem like a useful adaptation of common sailing Rigging.

just 3x around .. rather than port and starboard, fore and aft rigging.

Inside a single pole teepee tent like TheMegamid there is the possibility of using it as a place to hang your lantern ..

have you heard or hammockforums.net?

you might have better luck on finding a stand on there. I have seen one that was small enough and light enough to put on a bike but it is not commercially available. It was just somethign a guy was tinkering with.
I am Silverpalm2x on there.

I didn't see any specific discussions on HammockForums.net about carrying a hammock on your bike, although I did notice a few threads with DIY projects for portable stands that might be light enough (though not tried and tested enough). I was curious to see what experiences the bike touring community could have in terms of taking a hammock with you while travelling by bike.

I was not sure if you had heard of it. I was just offering it as a suggestion for a place that people are talking about hammocks. They are tinkerers and thought it might help you out.

It's rare not to find at least one tree or pole. In such cases one can use the seat post of a bike as the other end to support a hammock. Here's an example I posted on Hammockforums:

https://www.hammockforums.net/forum/...-Hammock-Stand

I also experimented with portal, one-tree hammock stands that could be combined with a bike to support a hammock:

https://www.hammockforums.net/forum/...-hammock-stand

It would be possible to develop a relatively lightweight version of this. The total weight of the example I provide above is 27oz.