Lightweight tent recommendations?

Here's a tent I recently ordered. A Chinese copy of the Big Agnes tent. Cheap as chips but very much worthwhile.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17XT1P3Ipd8

Bit of a dredge...what did you use instead of trekking poles? (assuming you were bikepacking?)

The ones Tarptent sell. The ultralight one for the Contrail has been fine in all weather so far, but it is bent if the tent is pitched properly. I wish I'd bought the tougher poles for my Stratospire 2. The ultralight ones I got for it flex way too much. I managed to find some heavy fibreglass ones in Queenstown NZ not long after I figured this out.

How do you get on with pitching with minimal places to stick a peg to? I'm cueing up a set of options for a lightweight tent, my problem is in south west WA there is a lot of rock/pea gravel clay stuff which is difficult to get a peg into, so I'm looking into freestanding options (which are heavier).

I feel I'm going to end up having to HTFU and just use my bike/rocks/sacrifice a bent peg or something. Or just get more selective about sites. I was looking into the Hilleberg tents too, pricey, but thoughts on those?

I was also worried about this, but haven't found it to be a problem in practice, so far. Here's a pic of our Stratospire 2 pegged into a gravel car park:

The stakes that came with the Tarptent hammer in well, usually using a rock. The ends pop off occasionally when pulling them out a bit though, but snot a hard problem to get around. They look like this:

I went from an MSR Hubba Hubba which is free standing to these tents, and it played on my mind a bit, but I've found it fine. Maybe consider the Double Rainbow though, which can be made to be free standing, but I think it requires trekking poles. It's a good tent regardless, but the SS2 is lighter and bigger.

P.S. - I know Hilleburg make excellent quality tents, but I don't know anyone who has one. Tarptents were lighter and packed smaller, which was my priority when I was looking.

Hillebergs are very well made and have the rep for being tough.

This come with two issues.
1) Being tough equates to more weight, they are dropping in weight though.
2) Being well made means they ain't cheap.

I nearly bought one.
On the day the shop set up several tents and we got down to a Laser comp and a Hilleberg.
The Laser was about £50 cheaper, much lighter and had more internal space and i could sit up (just) inside it, thats what swung it for the Laser. So far the Laser is 10+years old and still going strong. Laser's are light but snug for 2 people, ace for solo work.
It's only used in the UK.
If i was more likely to be up big mountains around the world i think the extra toughness of the Hilleberg would come into play.

Play around with pegs. I got a pile of Alpkit Y-pegs, adding weight, but 4 XL pegs for corners and some shorter Y-pegs mixed in with the carbon spikes cover me for hard and super soft ground.

Cheers for all the info @ WestcoastPete and @853Superfly ...after looking at the tarp tent website the MomentDW (or the similar laser comp) seems to fit the bill quite nicely...lighter than a Hille (probably not as tough) cheaper, and only needs 2 pegs (for moment), +more for guying out if needed in winds.

Reviews reckon the moment vents a lot better than the Hille Akto/Enan too, and it comes with mesh or full nylon options! A MomentDW with aftermarket poles/guys/pegs would make a pretty light touring tent. My uses would probably be fast and light touring, but not racing.

How do the bathtub floors rate in your Tarp Tent and Laser Comp guys? Do you need a ground sheet or is it tough enough to plonk down on some gravel/cleared out ground?

Bathtub floor is great atmo. I don't use a groundsheet, but I did with my Hubba Hubba. I'd say the Tarptent is tougher.

The Tarptent Contrail needs some support down its spine to keep water from pooling over your legs. I learnt this when I woke up with what felt like a big water bladder on my quilt. Everything was dry though. Next night I added an extra guy to the rear, pitched like in this picture using a stick:

The Protrail back end looks very different to the Contrail though.

I have a Laser Comp and a Hilleberg Soulo.

I use the Laser most of the time and it works well once you suss out the optimal set up. It does rattle like hell in the wind however and can keep you awake all night.

The Soulo is bombproof and has the advantage of not always needing to be staked down as it's self supporting. I bought mine off ebay and while it still wasn't cheap you know they will hold their value.

I have an AKTO, again a stunning tent. Highly recommend

Only comment on the older Lasers really.

So far at 10+ years the tub is showing signs of wear. To be fair we always check for stones, pointy things before laying it out, and have always avoided gravel ground.
Depending on weather conditions, as in not likely to freeze to death in my sleep i would deploy my Sol emergency bag as a groundsheet/tub protector as this is way lighter and cheaper than a dedicated "Footprint" groundsheet from terra nova. Or use the sleeping mat under the groundsheet to protect it.
To save weight the tub is fairly shallow, but i have pitched up in marsh conditions and had no water soak through. Not even naplam would have set the ground on fire.

There is no "right" tent they all have faults and niggles, just a case of working out what you want and can afford.

The terra nova carbon pegs are fairly tough but not suited to hammering into hard ground, the ultralight Ti wire pegs have limitations (despite being Ti and silly light). Hilleberg spec nice V pegs. Some tweaking with pegs and guylines can improve any tent.

I mostly seem to camp on soft ground (comfy) so added extra weight by getting the XL Y-pegs and standard Y-pegs.
Wasn't worth the cost and hassle of swapping to ultralight guylines as the stock fittings are pretty good allready.
Going to an Alpkit drybag while not saving a huge amount of weight does allow you to really pack down the tent over the stock tent bag. With playing around you can get the pack size down on many tents.

I still have my 80's issue poncho and trip flare stakes, probs around 2kg, the poncho is nearly a kg alone..... :) there is so much really good and sensible gear out there now. Pick your comfort level, tent, tarp,bivvy bag set a budget and look around.
I slowly regeared a few years ago, still getting stuff :)
Alpkit is ace for Ti cookware and cheap drybags.
I started reading up on the Marathon Des Sables, the kit lists for that are brutal, a minimum carry weight excluding water and a maximum, they don't have to carry tents/shelters and get a daily water ration (which needs carefull management) but they carry all food and equipment for several back to back desert marathons. Some of the specialist kit and weights are quite outstanding.

I've a laser comp. Must have done 100 nights in it. Still as new enough, woken up in a puddle and no water in tent.

I don't actually really like the tent though. Irritating to pitch and awkward to get into.

It's a good tent tough, stand up to anything and tough as. Light and quick.

Laser comp is my ultimate safe haven. I remember sleeping in a wild alpine hailstorm on a campground in Aspres-sur-Buëch. The family next to me had their tent completely destroyed quite early in the storm. They had to spend the night obviously not getting any sleep, watching their tent and stuff get ruined from their car with the two young daughters. It was a horrible night for them. Aside from the occasional wakeup by a blast of thunder I had a great night sleep and my tent stood steady as a rock in a puddle of mud. My sleeping bag got slightly wet but that was out of my own ignorance as I didn't pitch the tent very well so that the outer and inner tents were rubbing each other a bit in the wind.

Yes it can take a while to get a perfect pitch, but I love the tent and it packs in under 2 minutes for hasty mornings. And boy it is light.

Thats really handy to know, I may well get one of them in the future. As he said I looked on the sellers other items, they go have a fair bit of Ti cook wear as mentioned, but also some other more questionably named things....

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Since people are talking about it, I'm a bit disappointed with my Laser Competition. It's two things really. First the tension required to pitch it properly to avoid condensation basically rips the tent apart. Mind's broken at the bottom of the external flysheet zip where there's a small and useless plastic buckle designed to relieve the stress on the zip. I had to replace it with a toe strap when I was on tour. And the condensation. Which always seemed to be an issue, no matter whether everything was completely tense when pitched.

Dunno. I guess it's possible I've never pitched it right. But I don't think so.

Cheers for the input! Still swaying on hille/tarp tent moment/laser comp/hubba so this is good to know and google-utfs on :)

anyone interested in buying a Rab Ridge Raider Bivi? Less than a kilo, proper waterproof and all. Used for 3wks in Norway, bit more about it here. Let me know!

paging @hippy ..

Yeah, thought about it but I've yet to use the other one I bought so I'm not in the market for two of 'em just yet. I carried it with me around the Exe-Buzzard attempt but I didn't sleep before aborting so never got to try it out. Really should set it up outside on the lawn one night - the neighbours already know I'm a weirdo (turbo training outside ftw)

let me get this right:

you had all the gear for an overnighter, got a wee bit lost on this small island, instead of camping out and taking stock in the morning in best cycle tourist tradition, you wussed out and got the train home...

..nothing further m'lud

1) It WAS the morning.
2) I was doing an audax using 'Validation by GPS' meaning if I didn't follow the correct route it wouldn't be validated. I no longer had the correct route so it was game over for that idea. I had better things to do than ride another 200-300k for effectively 'null' result.
3) Feel free to share with us the details of your epic rides so I can bow down in humble awe.

w'evs ;p

bows down in humble awe

Psych!

fires epic cock punch

just don't darken the door to this thread again until you've spent a night under canvas - outdoors...