Here's a truly neat idea — use your bicycle to frame your tent.
Topeak, which has been making gadgets for bicycles for about 15 years, has developed this solo tent called the Bikamper that doesn't need tent poles.
According to the product information on the website, it appears that you use your unattached front wheel at one end and your fork and handlebars at the other (the fork tines are attached to a mounting device that's pushed into the ground). The tent fabric is stretched over this and staked into the ground.
It's kind of tight. It's length is 6-foot-5 and width tapers from 2-foot-11 to 2-foot 4. It can be used with road bikes that sport 700cc wheels or mountain bikes with 26-inch wheels.
But it's light, weighing just shy of 3 pounds. So it's a lot lighter, but a lot tighter than the two-man pup tent that I used to take on bicycle tours.
I haven't done an exhaustive product comparison or tested this tent, but a quick check of solo tents offered by REI shows that the Bikamper is lighter than most and right about in the middle in terms of price range and floor size.
The tent was reviewed earlier this summer at OhGizmo!
Full product specifications for the Bikamper are available at the Topeak website. If you have any comments or personal insights about this tent or other good tents for bike camping, feel free to post here.
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