Definitive ultra light cheap bikebacking tent

I was looking at this recently and bought a lanshan 1 pro.

Not used it in anger yet.

Pros seem to be

– well built/good quality

-almost as light as you can go, bivvy bag excluded

– lots of room inside and in the porch

– the brown colour is ace

Cons

– need a good pitch, peg placement is finicky

– need a pole (not really much of a negative)

– need to seam seal (not really much of a negative)

The reason why they don’t seem seal them in the factory is that it isn’t economically viable. You’d have to leave loads of tents pitched for hours and hours somewhere dry (huge warehouse), the man power to do it etc. it’s not possible to seam seal silnylon with tape.

I’m unsure about condensation and reliability at this point as not used it yet

Probably not a lot of use to you but I have a fluorescent yellow Naturehike Taga 1 (with footprint) I’m selling – happy to take £70 posted to your door.

It’s about 1500g packed and has enough room to sit up properly.

Is your tarp long enough to sleep entirely under?  I think mine is not, so there’d be nowhere to put the foot-end pole.

Depends how it’s pitched and if I’m stretched out or curled up, but I think the likes of the Alpkit Rig are a bit small, the Rig 7 unnecessarily large for 1 person. I got a “mid” sized tarp from Trekkertent for this reason.

With any bike packing tent there are compromises. I’m happy to take the condensation risk and risk of pitching instability on my Lanshan because the all up weight with poles and pegs is under 800g. Combined with the compact pack size and decent space when up it’s a set of compromises I’m happy to take.

If I was going further and had more uncertainty on what I was going to be facing for pitching or weather conditions I might go for something a bit more robust but for weekend jaunts it’s fine.

I can’t stand flappy tents in wind though.

@schmiken that’s probably too heavy for what I want, ta though.

When i bought my Hilleberg for over £400 in 1993 it wasn’t sean sealed. It came with sealant by i never used it and it never leaked. One night in New Zealand we had 180mm of rain

I can’t stand flappy tents in wind though.

Agreed.
There are some that are poorly designed or cut.
And a lot because the owner is sh*t at pitching.

And I don’t think there is a definitive lightweight tent, certainly not on a budget. It is all about your priorities, how you plan on using it, and compromises in design.

If I could afford a £600 tent I wouldn’t be starting a thread about £120 tents…

In the light of this I went looking at the current cost of my old Akto (a bargain at around £25 in Cotswolds at the time. They’re over £700 now just right for bike-packing in summer but a tad cramped with the inner tent pitched.

Hang on, a £25 tent now costs £700?!?

Must have been a typo, I’m guessing you meant £250? Still sounds v cheap for a Hilleberg considering the crazy prices for them now. When did you buy it?

@shermer75 it was £250 in around 2006, it was ludicrously cheap at the time and it would have been rude not to(I think Cotswold were getting out of the Hilleberg brand). They didn’t have any Nallo in stock or I would have had one of those too (Now £1200, then £450 on offer).

I ended up with a Lightwave tent instead of a Nallo, these are still reasonably priced.

https://www.decathlon.co.uk/p/mp/forclaz/refurbished-tunnel-trekking-tent-2-person-mt900-ultralight-d-grade/_/R-p-4585ebcf-6b99-4995-b70a-a42abffe92d7?mc=4585ebcf-6b99-4995-b70a-a42abffe92d7_c251&c=grey

Looks like a great deal on a reconditioned 2person forclaz