1. sleep diagonally! thats what I did in mine!
2. if you seal them yourself, and they leak, you only have yourself to blame... i reseal ALL tents weather done at the factory or not.
3. steel although heavier are better as if bent can be straightened, the ally ones snap...
4 use a piece thick poly the same size as the tent floor underneath, makes for a cleaner tent when packing away too.


BIG TIP!! DO NOT LEAVE YOUR BIKE KEYS IN THE INSIDE POCKET OF THE TENT WHEN YOU PACK IT AWAY........


Martyn

I have one of these and its a brilliant tent, never had any leaks or breaks even in torrential downpours. Its not great in gales and I just got some lighter pegs. I have never used it on the bike as I find it too bulky but its great for car camping.

sounds like you have the one below mine with the two alu poles to hold up the porch? i have the eiger with a vestibule at the front. (its yours with a bit more storage space, same inner tent)

to answer some of your points,
1; to me, packed size and weight are most important, so i decide what i can pack on the bike then get the biggest tent that will suit. to be honest, you cant have too much room, can you? the QE system takes a bit of room so you could have a bigger tent for the packed size, but to me its worth it. i was going to look into getting the next size up with the bigger vestibule in fact.
2; i thought exactly that when i got the tent, so i rang the supplier and they said khyam now seal the seams from new and the instructions and tube of sealer are supplied 'just in case', and to be fair the tents never leaked a drop in some horrendous downpours.
3; peg preference- is exactly that, YOUR preference. if they supplied all the types of pegs people preferred there would be a world shortage of Al, Ti and steel! if you dont like them, go shopping mate.
4; i also thought the groundsheet was too thin so i got the tailormade footprint from khyam, it makes all the difference and also 'floors' the vestibule, so you dont tread on so many slugs in bare feet in the mornings. its handy because you can roll the tent in it as you pack and its much easier to slip into the tent bag.

i like it, people will say its too bulky to take on a bike but it goes across the panniers nicely. i pack it in a large ortleib dry bag with a folding armchair, dont see the point of slumming it

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dave

HAHAHA not just me then, i done it with my passport and ticket once, had to unpack everything at bilbao ferry terminal!! got up in the morning, all organized, put everything i would need in a wallet then stashed it safely in the tent pocket while i packed up.

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dave