UKC

Hi I'm planning a 3500 km bikepacking trip with my girlfriend across Europe. 

Been looking at 3 man tent as my 2 man resent on the coast to coast was a bit cramped.

Looking at the alpkit jaran 3 ATM but the footprint is out of stock. Wondering anyone had other recommendations. Wouldn't like to spend more than 400 quid 

Cheers

You could just make a footprint out of Tyvek sheeet. It's light, cheap, works well and requires no skill.

Yeah I second that. Tyvek is the go to thing for a tough tent footprint. You can buy smaller sizes on eBay (so you don't have to buy 50m or whatever. It's what a lot of thru hikers use on massive treks

I have a Jarran 3 and they are lightweight and roomy for 2. The Alpkit footprints are pretty thin. I bought it for bikepacking, but haven't used it yet - kids are too young to carry their share of kit so we've used YHA. Only used it solo so far.  The double porch is good for warm weather as you can get proper airflow Vs a single entrance.

I have the Vango F10 xenon 2 plus which I use on backpacking and cycle touring trips. It fits me and my girlfriend perfectly with a bit of room to spare, I'm 6'1" and weigh around 190kg, and she's 5'7" (don't know her weight, but don't think she'd appreciate me sharing it if I did!). The big porch is useful for storing gear and cooking in when it's raining (with one of the two porch doors open). 

It pitches quickly, 3 simple colours coded poles in, and 12 pegs and you're done, more if you use the guy lines. Outer and inner pitch together which is good if you've had a day of cycling in the rain and want to get somewhere dry quickly. You can get all your wet kit off in the porch too and keep the sleeping area dry. Can't see from my quick look at the alpkit one how it pitches. Personally, I don't think I'd ever go for an inner first pitch. 

Strongest winds we had last month in Europe were around 40mph and it held up well. We made sure we pitched it well in sheltered areas where possible. 

I've never used a separate groundsheet with it, although have been meaning to get/make one. I did notice when on some boggy ground once when using it myself, so only one sleeping mat, that the water did get through a bit when putting pressure on the built in groundsheet, but was fine on my sleeping mat. 

I got it for under £280 (on sale with a discount code) in 2021 and have used it on multiple trips. Looks like it's around £400 now. 

Think it weighs around 2.5kg. I use it on my own too and is light enough for in my backpack when walking and feels like a palace when in it alone. 

We used a Jaran 3 for a similar trip and it was the perfect tent except for the thin ground sheet. Would definitely recommend getting footprint to prolong the life of the tent. We didn't and the groundsheet is no longer water proof, which we unfortunately found out 1 week into a 6 week hiking trip!

Great tent apart from that

The trick to avoiding this is to Fabsil the whole thing

Since it bike packing rather than touring, Why not just get a tarp?

Hi, I can sing the Alpkit tent range praises. I used the Ordos model (can't remember if it was the two or three person one, but I think it was the 3) bikepacking across Scotland last autumn. It was so roomy inside with lots of room for two of use and all our bags with room to spare, I think it still would have felt spacious with three people and bags inside.

It packed away tiny, including pegs, poles, outer and inner it was about the size of two Nalgene's next to each other. So this was super easy to split between the two of us, and barely took up any room in our bike bags.

It was quick to pitch and was inner pitch first. 

It held up against heavy rain each night, and had some strong wind gusts but nothing super galeforce and it happily stayed up and dry. 

Only downsides - the porch was small (fit our wet shoes and a wet bag in with a bit of spare space) and definitely would recommend taking an extra ground sheet as the base felt a bit thin and for long term/heavy use would start showing wear. I think something like the Tyvek sheet would work so well for this, and have used one myself on a different tent and it was great. 

I can't say what the Jaran models would be like, but looks like a slightly more durable model and only a tiny bit heavier which might mean it would last longer/heavier use. 

Have fun on your trip! 

I have an Alpkit Ordos 2. Alpkit also do a 3. I use it as a 1 man and occasional 2 and it is prety much perfect for bike packing. 

Very light, poles collapse to short enough sections that it will fit in a mid sized frame bag on a 54cm frame. 

If using for 2 people the 2 person ordos is inferior to the 2 peron Hubba hubba/ jaran style as they have a duel door meaning one person can use a door/vestibule each. 

Additionaly the Ordos isnt completley free standing like the others mentioned, it needs good guy line tension and i wouldnt chose it to sit out a storm.

However it is incredibly light(1.4 kg!!!) for the low cost (currently on offer for £186). being cost effective i can justify having a heavier solid tent for mountain use and keep the ordos for bike packing and summer cragging weekends. 

If you are proper bikepacking, particularly if you have a drop bar bike, think about how long the poles are folded up and where you are going to stow them on your bike. The folded poles to this https://www.ukclimbing.com/gear/camping/tents+bivvys/msr_freelite_2_tent-15... will fit inside the triangle of my gravel bike but I can't get them through the zip of my frame bag. Instead I've taken to stowing them inside the velcro straps of the frame bag, but above the bag itself under the crossbar, using voile straps to secure them. In the review down at the bottom there is a pic of my mountain bike with the pole bag strapped across my handlebar pack. Just make sure they are really well secured wherever you put them. 

Thanks all for the feedback. The vango looks interesting. I'm just unsure of tunnel tents as I've never used them as somehow I associate them with festival tents.

So far I think the Jaran 3 is still at the top of the list. The poles are also short enough to fit in the bags. 

The terra nova helm 3 compact is tempting. I have the 1 compact and love it and its bomb proof. My only concern is that its quite heavy at 3 kgs.

Still open to more options, I just need to pull the trigger at some point

Hi, I bought tent from Decathlon to use on the grand route des alpes ride.  Still use it 14 years later.

apologies for the hijack (altho I can recommend the tarpstar from alpkit for a lightweight bikepacking 'tarpy' tent)

How do you find having your bottles on the forks like that ?  I'm just looking at doing similar for a weeks trip coming up as my frame bag means I can't put them in the usual location and on the bottom of the downtube they get filthy..

They have worked perfectly for a number of multiday trips previously, but last summer when I rode the Rebellion Way I did manage to lose a bottle. I thought about going back to find it but I had been doing one of the roughest sections of the 370-odd km ride and I really wasn't sure when I had last seen it was there, so decided to the odds were quite low on finding it so I would try and replace it instead (which I did at a big Tesco in Norwich the next morning).

I have even put them on the suspension fork of my mountain bike as well - see the pic below. I did some quite techy and rocky single track in the Howgills and off Wild Boar Fell that trip and I don't think a bottle ever came out. I don't remember but I probably had a small loop of elastic (swing tag labels on fancy outdoor clothing are often good sources of just the right size elastic loops!) through the top of the bottle cage and then just pulled over the cap of the bottle. This seems enough to keep even a full 750 ml bottle in place on real bumps. I suspect I didn't have elastic loops there on the rebellion way, so have learnt my lesson!

Just had a look at the exped outer space 2 tent might actually go for that. looks quite good. Need to mull it over

Used the Jaran 3 a fair bit. Great price and brilliant space for 2. Not too heavy. Downside is inner first pitch which is a no no for me in UK (might be less important in Europe though). The pitch is also very fiddly and the wind performance is not great. 

Another alpkit fanboy here . I’ve got a tetri and a viso 2 . I d say the viso 2 would be perfect for a long  bike trip spit between 2 . Loads of room in the inner and a huge porch .  Not convinced by this “ bike packing “ malarkey though . What’s wrong with a pannier rack ?

MSR make the 2-person tent "Hubba, Hubba" in a biking version.  It has shorter poles .....