Yet more tent advice

[Wowbagger]

I would just worry, waking up in the morning, staggering out of the tent, stretching, yawning, scratching one's tummy, only to glance at the spot where once your pride and joy stood the previous night.

Most blokes have that trouble in the morning.

[Doosh]

I'll probably be getting some money from my old man for my birthday in a couple of days ( I keep telling him not to bother but he keeps giving it me  ) but I've still not made my mind up.

I think I've narrowed it down to either the Vango Banshee 200 or 300, there's not a great deal in it weight wise (2kg Vs 2.6kg) which could probably be bought down a bit more with some peg swappage.

Any ideas if the 300 is worth the slight extra cost and weight over the 200? It'll just be for me but I thought the extra room of the 300 might be better for when I decide just to slob around the tent for a day or so, plus somewhere to keep the panniers etc.

[Kim]

Any ideas if the 300 is worth the slight extra cost and weight over the 200? It'll just be for me but I thought the extra room of the 300 might be better for when I decide just to slob around the tent for a day or so, plus somewhere to keep the panniers etc.

I'd say so.  The 300 has enough room for two adults and some gear, which means it'll happily fit one adult, all their gear and leave plenty of space to move around it.  I gave ours a trial run at the York Rally, and found there was plenty of room to strip out of soaking wet clothing without dripping all over the bedding.

The 300 also gains you an extra storage area between the inner and fly (good for boots, food etc), and an entrance on both sides.  The latter means you can get a decent amount of air circulation if you're wanting to lounge around reading or whatever during the day.

[Doosh]

Thanks Kim, I think that just about sways it 

Do you reckon it will fit ok strapped to the top of a rack? or is it best split down and carried in panniers? I'm wondering if I can get away with just the two rear panniers with the tent on top.

[Kim]

Do you reckon it will fit ok strapped to the top of a rack? or is it best split down and carried in panniers? I'm wondering if I can get away with just the two rear panniers with the tent on top.

*has a try*

In its compression sack, but not especially well compressed (not that it matters, the important dimension is the length of the poles), it'll sit on the rack of my DF tourer^[1] lengthwise and overhang by about 15cm at the rear, or horizontally across two panniers without looking daft.  If you did something clever with the poles you could probably compress the rest of it down to an even more rack-friendly shape.

My general preference is to stuff it into the bottom of a pannier (with the poles and pegs in with the bedding, for better weight distribution), but I'm a 4-pannier kind of gal.  If you're happy with all the weight on the rear of the bike, there's no reason two-panniers-and-tent-on-top won't work.



_{[1] This configuration doesn't work so well on the SMGT because of the angle of the top of the seat, but it would still go across the panniers okay.}

[Doosh]

Thanks. It was just the hassle and (yet more) expense of rigging up a front rack and panniers I was hoping to avoid, but if I have to then I will obviously have no choice but to bite the bullet.

[Ariadne]

I manage fine with just rear panniers and a tent on top, Doosh - it's not ideal having all the weight back there but it's fine. This is with an Octane 3, which is quite a big tent:




As you can see, I do have front racks (and panniers), but unless I'm going away for longer I don't use them, because I know I'd just fill them!

[Oscar's dad]

^^^ Ditto.  Its amazing how little you need to carry and you'll probably be fine without front panniers.

Last summer we (two adults and a child - one solo and one tandem) survived for a fortnight with 8 panniers.  Yes, we did have 4 front panniers but 1 was just filled with junk.  Our 2 tents were on top of the racks.  We also carried full cooking kit.

[Butterfly]

We carry our tent under the flap of our saddle bags. That also gives you a bag for day rides . We have got our kit down to 6 panniers and 3 saddlebags for the 3 of us.  I do sometimes have empty front panniers so that I have space for shopping when I support local businesses and also to put a few things in if we are on a long train journey so that I don't have to rummage through huge panniers to find a fleece or my netbook.