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Which tent do you use when you go camping alone on your bike and why?
I have a EasyCamp Shadow 200. It's 2 man tunnel type tent with a little porch. Only uses 2 same length poles and has an outer that you can put up first and then an inner sleeping compartment that ties to the outer. Being able to put up the outer first when it's raining is good because the inner then doesn't get wet. That said, I put up the outer first only the first time I pitched it, after that I took it down together and I've always just put it up again like that. It's a lot less faff doing it that way, it saves pitching time and taking down time. The sleeping compartment has a good sized door that zips open and has a 2nd flap that can zip down so the whole door is mesh. Presumably this is for use in really hot weather, but we are in the UK and we don't really know what that's like. Still, I might use it in Morocco some day and then I'll be glad it has this feature. The little porch at the front of the tent is great. It's not big enough that you can sit in it and cook when it's raining, but it's big enough to put your boots and/or helmet in so they don't get wet during the night. Because of the porch I never have my shoes inside the tent either and I also leave cooking equipment and other things like my flask in the porch. Other than the porch another good thing about this tent is that you can pitch it with only tent pegs in all by the strongest winds. I've only ever used the
guy ropes twice in all the time I've had it, the rest of the time it's been pitched without ropes. This is another time saver when you're pitching/taking it down. It's also good in the sense that you/other people don't trip over the ropes, particularly when you're a bit cold in the middle of the night looking for a hedge/bush to let water into. It's also a very easy tent to put up and take down by yourself. It's a cheap tent to buy, I think I paid £50 or so for it and I've had it for a few years now. With all those pros I think it only has one con, it doesn't pack up as small as some 2 man tents can and isn't as light as some can be, but you'd have to pay a whole lot more to find something this good that's smaller and lighter. Even so, it still fits in my Givi 55 litre top box without a squeeze.
Here's a vid that shows you what it looks like:
In addition to the tent I now also have a tarp and a pole that I can erect to have a 'roofed' area where I can cook if it rains. I put the tarp up so it's over the tent's porch.