There is a wide variety and a good selection of camping tents available. Most people will be able to find several that meet their expectations. However, those who have not used camping tents much before or those who have used them for other purposes might have problems selecting the appropriate camping tent for bicycle camping.
What features are most important? I would judge these features most important, but they are not given in order of importance: camping tent material and quality of camping tent, length of poles, size of the packed camping tent, weight of the camping tent, type of camping tent, space inside the camping tent, and whether the camping tent requires a fly or not.
Quality and Material of the camping tent
First, it’s easy to find poorly made, often heavy, camping tents of a poor design that will leak and come apart easily. Such a camping tent might be made of inferior material as well. Some camping tents are not waterproof yet are sold without waterproof fly sheets. A poor-quality camping tent is not worth purchasing. Excellent camping tents can be purchased for as little as $100, the cost of two or three nights in a motel. Remember that this camping tent has to keep you dry and comfortable at night, even during a storm. For those with very little money, I would suggest examining any discount store camping tent thoroughly. As an alternative for areas and seasons with few insects, a tarp camping tent could be used.
Length of the Poles
Second, the length of the poles is important when carrying them on a bike. If the poles are short enough, they can fit within your bags. If they are as long as 24″, they will have to be fastened to the bicycle’s top bar, where they will be in the way, and even 24″ will be too long for many people. I prefer poles that are 12″ to 16″ in length. Take a ruler and measure your bike and panniers and decide where you want to carry your poles and figure out how long they must be.
camping tent Size
Third, the size of the packed camping tent is important. Think here about where you are going to place the camping tent on the bike. If the camping tent, sleeping bag, and a mattress are placed on the rear carrier, as I frequently see, they all have to fit comfortably and tie down tightly. Or if the camping tent is to go in a pannier bag, then it has to be small enough to do so.
camping tent Weight
Fourth, the weight of the camping tent is an important consideration. The weight is affected by the number of poles, the design of the camping tent, and whether the camping tent is of single-wall or double-wall design. The weight of the camping tent is also going to affect its packing size and the size inside the camping tent. I think the kind of trip that you are planning also may also be important. For example, if you plan to camp out only occasionally, why not carry the smallest size camping tent possible? For one person, there are camping tents as small as a pound and a half, or for two people there are camping tents of three pounds. However, if you are going to be traveling for extended periods of time, perhaps including rainy days or cold days as well, then a larger camping tent is justified. I don’t think that a four-pound camping tent for one person or a six-pound camping tent for two should be considered too heavy if they provide the room you need. Even heavier camping tents can also make sense, but they shouldn’t be bought without good justification. When I say 『good justification,』 I don’t me
an that you have to please me; please your own self; just be sure that you will be happy. Not all the weight that goes into a camping tent is necessarily going to be of any value to you. Extra strength bottoms, heavy material, and an excess of poles all add to the weight, and while there are good reasons for these features, they might not be of any benefit to you. Likewise, double-walled camping tents are heavier for the same interior space, so think about this feature. Some people consider an extra ground tarp a necessity, even though it adds a pound of weight or more. I have never owned one. I would never pitch my camping tent on a spot that could significantly damage the bottom, although I get occasional tiny holes. A cheap thin plastic sheet would keep the bottom of your camping tent clean and dry just as well, although I’ve never used one of those either.
camping tent Design
Fifth, the design of the camping tent is also an important consideration. It’s not so simple that one kind of camping tent is bad and another is good; they all have advantages and disadvantage. We can discard one design right away, however. The stand-up camping tent is too heavy for bicycle camping. A second design, or lack of design, the tarp camping tent, can only be used in places with few crawling or biting insects and with trees to tie it to. If your camping sites meet these characteristics, and if you like sleeping in the open, it’s very cheap and lightweight. The pup or A-frame camping tent is a very simple design that is usually found in inferior camping tents. Before the introduction of waterproof camping tent fabrics, this kind of camping tent was necessary. The weakness of the design is that the walls tend to sag in, and the internal space is not very human-shaped, giving too little headroom and too much floor room. This kind of camping tent should at least include some extra ties to pull the walls outward. The dome camping tent looks like an igloo. This camping tent design is good at
creating space for the head and shoulders but sometimes lacks enough space for long legs. This camping tent also generally requires more poles than others. The hoop camping tent, instead of using straight or triangular poles, uses hoops at either end, with usually the foot end much smaller than the head end. This camping tent, in my opinion, is a very good compromise between the dome and the A-frame camping tent, with the greatest amount of room where it is most needed. These are not the only designs possible. The designers have really gone to a great deal of trouble to create some odd designs which offer various advantages, such as extra ventilation, more interior space or headroom, or better year-round abilities. It’s impossible to categorize many of these camping tents. A feature of many designs is that the camping tent does not need stakes. This feature makes the camping tent heavier, as the stakes are replaced with an extra pole. Self-standing camping tents probably became popular due to the brick-hard lawns and gravel pads common in campgrounds (one person told me s
he always pitched her self-standing camping tent on top of the picnic table!). Stakes add little weight. The best are the wire-like stakes, as they weight less, take up less space that the fatter, plastic stakes, and can be placed in the ground with the bare hands, on most woodland soils. On hard ground, I tie long cords to rocks and trees rather than using the stakes.