A tent using the bike as part of the frame?
 

Topeak Bikamper Bike Tent : Bikes | Mountain Bikes | Road Bikes| Winstanleys

I'm off on a 2 month Eurotrip and really want to camp a fair bit.
What I'd like is a tent like the one I've linked to above.
Where I can use the bike as part of the frame.
Size is a factor but if there's any suggestions, I'll gladly receive them!

Tris...

That looks like a terrible design for a mountain bike , let alone a Motorbike.

You have to remove your bicycle wheel and the bike has to be level and straight. It also looks like it's about to rip in 5 places at any time..

It doesn't even pack that small.... Total gimmick at first glance.

Anyway... You can tie ANY tent, poncho or bivvy to your bike and use it as an anchor. But why bother !!

What 99% of people do is just use a free standing Dome/Geodesic designed tent, and for good reason. It just' the easiest, simplest, most practical and versatile thing for motorcycle travel.

I personally hate tying anything to my bike. What do you do if you want to ride to the shops etc ! Do you drag your camp site behind you ?

What if you get high winds and the tent pulls your bike over on top of you !

The list goes on....... :scooter:

Believe me, I have been down this road and appreciate your creative lateral thinking, but Touring Ted is right.

I imagine many riders have often thought: Why not use your bike as a frame for a tarp tent?

But then you go traveling and realize that it would have hurt when the bike blew over at night in a gale in Death Valley. And you can't go to town and get supplies if your bike is part of your tent. And the mosquitos are nasty, it would be nice if my moto-tarptent had netting. And then you look at some peoples solutions like this gargantuan thing that looks like it's made out of cheese:

Nomad Motorcycle Tent | Uncrate

And eventually you realize that it is much more practical to just get a high quality lightweight free standing tent and a black bike cover.

I am a minimalist and use this:

Tripod Bivy - Shelter - Tents, Shelters, Bivys, Accessories // Black Diamond, Bibler - Black Diamond Equipment, Ltd.

Larger tents are the norm and there are plenty of good ones out there.

Welcome to HU.

Kindest regards,
John Downs

+3 to what John and Ted say.

I've also been down the route of trying to sleep in the sidecar. Seems logical, you have a nice waterproof box and will be your own bike alarm. Trouble is, you have so many compromises to make with regards to shape and size and finding a patch of ground that allows you to both park, get out again in the morning and have your head in a decent place while you sleep it's just easier to buy a tent and go.

Andy

I'm glad I can learn from your experiences!
OK, so a stand alone tent it is.
Now I am trying to keep the back of my bike clear (Only using panniers) to carry a spare helmet and pick up hitch-hikers along the way.
To that end, I must find a front rack that'll fit onto my Honda Varadero to hold the tent and Sleeping bag!
But that's for another forum I guess :)

Cheers all..!!

Remember, just because your tent comes in a single unit bag, it doesn't mean it has to stay that way.

You could tie your poles onto your pannier rack (doesn't matter if they get wet) and you can stuff the outer tent wherever you feel like. Rolled, folded etc etc.

A three man Dome tent is all you will need for Europe. Happy travels :D

I've tried using the bike as part of my shelter a quite a few times over the years - some out of necessity when I've lost the tent, some out of tiredness when I couldn't be bothered to put it up and some when I couldn't get the tent to stand on its own (mainly on sand).

For a quick overnight stop on a warm night when you're not going to get bitten to death by insects it's ok, in snow or in a 40mph wind it's not so good.

Apart from being some sort of conversation starter I can't imaging what advantage you'd get from a tent that was designed to need a bike as part of its support. Any weight saving must be minimal and what happens when you change the bike - do you have to get a new tent?

A few pics of my "biketent" experiences -

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r...nearDijonC.jpg


That one was some time ago. This one a bit more recently -


http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r...Africa0109.jpg

That's an interesting idea about hitch-hikers. Of course you have to consider that a lot of hitch-hikers might not want to ride on the back of a motorcycle, and of the ones who do many will probably be carrying huge backpacks. But definitely an interesting idea that's sure to result in plenty of fun and antics.

To put a rack on the front of the bike you really need to make/modify one yourself, or use the services of somebody who can do this for you. You can carry a lot of stuff this way so it's definitely worth persevering with.

This was us carrying quite a lot 'up front', though I think we ended up rearranging things to have slightly less bulk there.
https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-q...c/s640/tob.jpg


On the subject of Bashas/tarps: They're definitely not to most people's taste but they do work if you're wanting to go ultra minimal. I actually find sleeping under a basha particularly pleasant as the first thing you see when you wake up in the morning is the entire landscape that's surrounding you.