I have used a Jack Wolfskin two-man tent for years, the one used by Manotea at Mildenhall one year and as featured in last year's York rally. I have a couple of light-light-lightweight tents for touring, as well as the Hyperspace I use for base camping, but when I am going to ride a little way and stay in one spot I like a mid-sized tent for space and comfort. The Jack Wolfskin was bought in 1993, and is picking up pinprick holes and other evidence of UV damage. Still a good tent, though, but this one came as a one-off one-third off so I snapped it up.
Packed weight is 2.89kg, so no lightweight, but not a lead anchor. It is an all-in-one pitch, where the inner is attached by toggles to the outer. The basic design is a tunnel, with two arched poles, the taller at the front, held to the outer by slotting onto spikes at the base, and clipping to the fly with plastic clips. The inner tent tapers down towards the rear, with a mesh ventilator panel up high, and there are seven guying ropes, three of which help to hold the two ventilator hoods open on the fly. The tension bands across the tent have buckle adjustment, and there are two buckles at the rear to tension the edifice.
Good points. The vestibule is lovely and big, and the tent has enough room to sit up and turn around in properly. It is well-ventilated, and there is an excellent separation between fly and inner. Last nioght's storm made it move about a bit, but nothing tore, nor distorted, and I stayed dry, even with gusts coming at the tent from all sorts of direction. Erection is simple and fast.
Not so good points. In common with other Vaude ultralight tents, the ground sheet is thin, so a protector may be a good idea, which obviously affects the weight. The hydrostatic head of Vaude groundsheets is not so good, so I anticipate having to proof this one before long. And there's the inner door, which is half net, half solid cloth. That means you can't seal a nice fug in, but also that in a hot country you can't sleep with a breeze over your face without being eaten alive by insects.
Bad points. The pegs. Cheap, truly shitty simple skewers Either replace them, or bung an old steel hole-maker peg in the bag. At one this morning I had my upper body out in the rain to reset the two vestibule pegs to cut down on noisy flapping.
