Tent pics...

[Oscar's dad]

Our Nallo 3GT

seven hundred pounds!! oh my gosh I had no idea tents could cost that much.

They don't need to. Check out Decathlon - good, lightweight tents at a fraction of the cost. You can even buy on-line now.

It's a bit like bikes really. There is cheap, there is light, there is quality, but there is not cheap lightweight quality tents. ...

As ever, it really depends on what you're doing.  I've got several bikes which cost well over £1000 even before I started buying extra bits for them (and I know there are plenty of people on here who've spent a lot more on bikes), and I've got one which cost me £69 from Decathlon.

Having said that, my cheapest tent was £250, and is a small one man tent which I got when it was on special offer (it's current full price is close to £400), but there's plenty of room for things like cheap tents so long as you don't expect them to be light, well designed, rugged and long lasting.  There's a reason that they're cheap!  They'll often be fine for car camping, use during the warmer summer months, or using with kids (who are not likely to treat a several hundred pound tent like you and I would!)

Really, it's horses for courses.  Of course there will be exceptions, and sometimes you'll find a fine cheap, lightweight tent that lasts a lifetime, but I'd suggest that mostly you get what you pay for.

I would agree with Tim's sentiments. 

I confess I have not had the chance to carefully examine an expensive £400+ tent.  If you are intending to use a tent most weekends throughout the year and possibly in more extreme high altitude environments then buying a top dollar tent makes a great deal of sense. 

However, we and I suspect many others are not in this bracket; we will use our Decathlon tents 2 or 3 times each year.  Ordinarily I would agree with the "you get what you pay for" maxim.  However, I was very surprised by our Decathlon Quecha Ultralight tents.  They weigh 1.9 (2 people at a squeeze) and 2.9kgs (roomy 2 person tent) and cost c£70 and c£80 respectively.  I cannot fault them for quality and they come with some nice touches - the pegs and bags are particularly good.  As I say, how they compare to £400+ tents I couldn't say but I would have no hesitation in recommending them (as I have done on numerous occasions).  Ours are entering their third season and providing we look after them I see no reason why they shouldn't give us many years of enjoyment to come.

One final thought, most tents now, even very cheap ones from Argos, Millets and Tesco etc have welded seams so are pretty much guarenteed to be waterproof.  If you want to get cycle camping but can't stump up £400 then buy a cheap tent, you'll be fine and more importantly, you'll be cycle camping 

[jogler]

IME you get what you pay for.Quality & durability cost more £.
Simples.

[TimO]

Decathlon are possibly an exception to some cheap stuff being a bit naff.  I'm not saying that their stuff is comparable in quality and usability to much more expensive equipment, but so long as you know what you're looking for, their stuff is often very reasonably priced for what it is.  That seems to apply to things like bike as well as tents and clothing.

[PH]

Where's the pics

[andrew_s]

Tent pic


Presumably the same as Tim O's £400 reduced to £250 tent, except mine was reduced to £225 (though I dare say full price was a bit less then).

You could view it as being the equivalent of your £2000 road bike, where the £80/£100 Decathlon (current price) is equivalent to a £500 road bike.
As with everything else, you weigh up how much you are going to use a bit of equipment, how/where you are going to use it, and how much money you've got, and make a choice. If your cheap bike breaks, you've got unexpected taxi/train costs to get home; if your cheap tent breaks, you've got unexpected hotel costs.

[Kim]

You could view it as being the equivalent of your £2000 road bike, where the £80/£100 Decathlon (current price) is equivalent to a £500 road bike.

...making the £25 Pro-Action tent the equivalent of a £100 single-speed mountain bike with slick tyres.  Yeah, that sounds about right.

[PH]

Old and new.  My old £25 Coleman next to my new £250 TN Solar.  Is the TN better, of course, lighter, bigger, less flappy, easier to put up. will probably last longer... Is it ten times better?  Who knows or cares.  Did my luxury tent mean I enjoyed the tour I did with the Coleman's new owner more than him, no.

[plum]

Our Nallo 3GT

seven hundred pounds!! oh my gosh I had no idea tents could cost that much.

They don't need to. Check out Decathlon - good, lightweight tents at a fraction of the cost. You can even buy on-line now.

Preaching to the converted, me and my T2 Ultralight have done plenty of miles together.

[Oscar's dad]

^^^ 

[Luke]

Wild country Duo-lite tourer. 


IMG_0603 by Hey look, it's Luke!, on Flickr

[clarion]

Interesting smokestack on your steam-bike.

[Luke]

Interesting smokestack on your steam-bike.

It keeps my hands warm whilst riding 

[andrew_s]

You could view it as being the equivalent of your £2000 road bike, where the £80/£100 Decathlon (current price) is equivalent to a £500 road bike.

...making the £25 Pro-Action tent the equivalent of a £100 single-speed mountain bike with slick tyres.  Yeah, that sounds about right.

It's probably more like a £250 bike on a sale for £100.
Regular price for the Pro Action tent was £50, but it got discounted quite often. I did see it down to £17 once.

[Luke]

The small tent, a terra nova laser comp.


DSCF3934 by Hey look, it's Luke!, on Flickr

[Oscar's dad]

Wild country Duo-lite tourer. 


IMG_0603 by Hey look, it's Luke!, on Flickr

I think if I was in the market for a proper tent as opposed a cheapo Decthlon jobbie I would have one of these.  I note that Field & Trek have this version marked down to £175 and the standard version down to £135.

[Canardly]

I am also coming around to this......

[Luke]

Snip...

I think if I was in the market for a proper tent as opposed a cheapo Decthlon jobbie I would have one of these.  I note that Field & Trek have this version marked down to £175 and the standard version down to £135.

I found one in sports direct in Nottingham for £150. This was about a week after I'd bought it for £200 elsewhere 

[PH]

Two good looking tents Luke, I can't have more than one, it takes me long enough to decide which bike, if I had to choose a tent as well I'd never get away.
TN had just got the first batch of Duolite's in when I went to collect my Solar, they offered me one at a cracking price, but didn't want to invest in a tent nobody knew anything about.  It's certainly a lot of tent for the money and weight.

[mike]

from monday evening:



a few hours before the wind picked it up at 2am and we had to walk back down in the dark and torrential rain.  But that's another story.

[JJ]

Do tell it!

[mike]

well..
we walked up to the base of cadair idris on a beautiful spring afternoon:


chose the most perfect campsite
(you can just see Mrs Ms red jacket on the 'island' bit)

it got really cold but we had a nice dinner and a bottle of wine and were tucked up in our sleeping bags by 10.  About midnight, the wind picked up to about 20-30mph and went around 180 degrees from when we pitched the tent. We tried to sleep through it but were rudely awakened at 2 when the front of the tent took off and we were both suddenly sitting straight up..

I held the tent down while Mrs M got dressed, then she did while I packed everything up.  Unfortunately her pack had been blown away so we crammed as much as we could into mine and had to leave a few bits under a weighted-down tarp.  Thank god it was her pack that went, the car keys were in mine..

we took about 2 hours to walk down to the car in pouring rain (and dark, obv), which was interesting.. we'd gone up the long way and decided to risk finding the shorter way down, it was fine, apart from the steep and slippery bits, but just needed a few map stops.

A couple of hours kip in the car (there's a great pic on her phone of me in my bag in the car with a bottle of scotch, will find it tomorrow), then an Olympic breakfast and a lot of tea at the nearest Little Chef, a clean pair of socks then back up the hill to get the stuff we'd left up there - no sign of Mrs Ms pack but everything else was there. 

a memorable evening.... 

[Wowbagger]

Commiserations, Mike. That's really rotten luck.

Two or three years ago we climbed Cader from the King's YH. That was in May. It was very windy that week - so much so that Teethgrinder was almost lying down to avoid being  blown away while we were approaching the summit.

The same week we all wheeled our bikes over Barmouth bridge. TG reckoned it was the strongest wind he'd ever tried to cycle in. It was an easterly, whipping straight off the mountain and along the Mawddach estuary.

[clarion]

That's quite a trip.  We had an altogether more peaceful weekend camping near Stratford.  The views weren't as good, but I am consoled by how much safer it was.

Sorry to hear you lost some kit, but happy that no one was hurt.

[Majorbloodnok]

That is truly awful, I mean.....Little Chef!  Surly there was an alternative?

[Ariadne]

Wow - at least you got a good story out of it, and everything turned out ok!