Friday, August 25, 2006

Motorcycle camping gear test

In order to test my new camping gear, I decided to camp out in my own backyard for three nights.

Tent: Sierra Designs Light Year (3 season tent, 1 person tent)

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Front side

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Back side

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Rain cover

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Very roomy inside

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I actually didn’t find the directions for setting up the tent until after I had set the tent up, it only took a few minutes, very simple. Folded up, the tent is only 17” long and weights around 2 lbs 11 oz.

Sleeping pad: Big Agnes Insulated Air Core Rectangular Pad - Short 66in. x 20in.

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This one you have to blow up but it’s pretty thick, about 2.75”. The blowing up didn’t take that longer, longer than setting up the tent though Though. It took the same amount of time to empty the air out and to roll it back up. I chose this one over the self-inflating one because it was lighter and thicker, not sure yet if I made the right choice.

Sleeping bag: Northface mummy style synthetic 40 degree


Camping Test:

The One night was cool, one night was hot and humid and one night was rainy. On the last day while I was at work, 3 heavy storms moved thought he area with high winds, the tent was exactly where I had left it and it was still dry.

Over all I’m pretty happy with my camping gear. I was comfortable enough. I could have really gone expensive and gotten some really light and small folding stuff, but this wasn’t for some backpacking expedition, I can spare some room on the motorcycle for this stuff, I wanted decent quality and not too expensive. The tent, sleeping pad and sleeping bag cost me a total of approximately $230.

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Tent, sleeping bag and sleeping pad ready for sport-touring

4 comments:

Unknown said...

That tent looks awesome. I'm going to have to pick one up. Isn't it fun to camp in your own backyard, haha...

Anna said...

I thought you bought a tent this summer? This one was $130, I really like it, although it doesn't stand on its own, you have to put the metal stakes in the ground to erect it. I had a hard time getting those in to sand when we camped in AZ.

Sandy has a Cabella (sp?) tent where the frame crosses over so it stands on it’s own, she can just pick it up and move it around but it’s not as roomy as mine and doesn’t fold down as small.

Anonymous said...

Very good and excellent pictures. Thank you for sharing..

Unknown said...

...Picked up this tent last August. Simply LOVE it. I use it as a backpacking tent, and I plan to use it later this year when I take my cross country trip on the back on my motorcycle :)