Surprising no-body has actually given useful advice as yet, so in a vein attempt I'll give my two bobs worth, here it goes...

We have a 2.5man tent with 4 poles, in the dry and following setup instructions it takes two of us about 5-8mins to get it up and pegged. The inner part first, the poles inserted, then the fly over the top and peg the whole thing down.

In the rain, I usually do it by myself (I am the butler and my missus is under shelter somewhere, no not in the Bently!). The tent will inevitably get wet but the idea is to reduce the amount or water inside the sleeping section (the inner part) of the tent.

1) Unfold partly the inner section of the tent and lay it out on the ground ensuring only the ground sheet or external (bit that usually touches the ground) part is exposed.
2) Quickly unfold and lay out the fly over the top of the inner. This way it is protected from getting wet while you do the rest.
3) Prepare all poles and lay them in arms reach.
4) Lift the fly up and while the inner is protected from the rain, unfold it underneath the fly. (this bit takes some dexterity).
(Optional) 5) If there are clips or velco that attaches the inner to the fly, do this now before inserting the poles.
6) Insert the main poles (you may need to put in a peg or two depending on the rain or wind conditions to keep the whole kit from flying away.
7) Insert remaining poles. Once all poles are inserted secure the tent as necessary and adjust the fly.
(now have a )

In our experience this works pretty well. As we have a vestibule in our tent, we can take off our panniers put them in the vestibule and the only things that are wet is our riding gear...

Tip: If you have to pack away a wet tent, pack the fly and the inner separately so as not to get the inner wet. We use a dry bag for the fly, this way we can put it in our panniers without getting everything else wet. When the sun comes out again, hang everything out to dry. The idea is to keep dry things dry...

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TurboCharger + Francois (our BMW R1200gs) '07
www.riding2up.net, blog.riding2up.net

Thanks for the link on my own thread and, yes, this is the useful nugget I was waiting for, rather than get wet and live with it, or buy a more expensive tent!!

I'll give it a try on a dry day, just to see.

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Adventure: it's an experience, not a style!
(so ride what you like, but ride it somewhere new!)

Just put my two bob's worth in,how about a Khyam Biker?Not the smallest tent on the market,but goes up and down in a couple of minutes.Loads of space in the large vestibule as well.Worth a look.

Turbo's method obviously works for his tent but because the design is different it's not how I set up either of the two flysheet first tents I have. Both are two man size and involve leaving the inner alone (and dry) until the fly sheet has been attached to the poles and pegged out. You then crawl inside with the inner and attach loads of clips. Doing this in the rain always gets the inner slightly damp because a. you're dragging the inner over wet grass to get it into place, and b. I'm wearing soaking wet bike gear.

I have a number of other "inner first" tents as well and unless it's thunderstorm heavy rain (if it is I usually wait a while) I can say I've ever noticed the inner get significantly damp in the minute or two it takes to set the inner up with the poles. That may be because I know the tents so well that I can set them up quickly - and doing it in the rain does tend to concentrate the mind. Remember that once the tent is set up and you're inside it there will be moisture transfer from you (breathing, damp clothing etc) through the inner to the flysheet. You'll see that as condensation on the inside of the flysheet in the morning.

We are, I think, stating the obvious here...

Your specific tent design makes a difference of course, what works for one tent will not work for another, etc.

Knowing your tent and being able to put it up withouth looking at instructions or having to run around and undo mistakes makes a difference.


But again what is obvious to one person is a puzzle to another . Our tent works quite well but if there is something that I have learnt from over 200 days of camping with our present tent (never more than 4 consecutive days at the same spot, meaning we pitch and tear it down very often) it's that the vestibule is absolutley essential in bad weather . We don't carry a tarp so there is no other shelter than our tent.

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TurboCharger + Francois (our BMW R1200gs) '07
www.riding2up.net, blog.riding2up.net

We started off with a MSR Mutha Hubba on our RTW. The MH was good up to a point. Easy and quick to set up in good conditions. After 70 nights of camping we only set up twice in the rain - both times it was a right pain. You can pitch the tent with two pegs, one at each end and attach the outer canopy clips under the poles but if it rains the lose sides touch the inner fly and it leaks. So you need 10 pegs in wet conditions. Also the Velcro straps that attach the canopy to the poles ripped off in moderate wind. We now have a Hilleberg Keron
One other thing, we have a Nato poncho each that we got from silvermans, they popper together and with the use of our Tatonka tarp Stange poles and 6 guy lines we have a shelter to erect the tent/cook under/sun shade/wind block.
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