Using Gelert Solo outer on it's own....?

[gairym]

anyone got any thoughts on this idea?

obviously it normally pitches inner first but surely with two little/light straps to hold the two ends of the two poles at the correct distance there's no reason why you couldn't just pitch the outer on it's own and have a great little shelter without the weight of the inner - no?

anyone know what weight this would end up as?

anyone tried it?

what do we think?

[Bearbonesnorm]

In all honesty I'm not convinced you'd actually fit in one

[Ray Young]

Hi Gairy, I agree with Stu. I'm 5'8" and find mine a tightish fit. I really don't think you would lose much weight as the inner is basically a ground sheet with mosquito netting attached. Full tent weight with supplied pegs etc is 1.5kg.

[gairym]

In all honesty I'm not convinced you'd actually fit in one

ouch!

you talking about length or girth?

it says it's 250cm internally (and that's with the inner and i'm only 187cm).



is this them being generous?

me aside - my thoughts are that a lot would depend on how the outer attaches to the inner structure.

[Bearbonesnorm]

No offence obviously

I did actualy trythis a couple of years ago and recall trying to get the outer to sit on top of the poles something like, was a real ball ache.

If you like the idea then search ebay for ' Luxe outdoor sildome'

[thomthumb]

no idea about the solo but 2 of us shared the outer of a laser comp for the bb200 & it work surprisingly well. :)

[Ray Young]

Back again Gairy. I have tried this before but couldn't remeber exactly why it would not work but i remember now. The poles go through loops on the inner at each end then the ends of the poles fit into metal rings at each corner of the inner, you then peg out the inner. The outer goes over the whole lot and is just tied at 2 points on each pole. Without the inner the poles just flop about. I mentioned that you would not loose much weight by not using the inner as you would not be putting your sleeping bag straight on the ground so you would need to carry a groundsheet or bivi bag anyway. Hope all this makes sense.

[chris n]

I've been meaning to try this with my Macpac Microlight - it's suitable to pitch fly only*. This should be better in bad weather than a tarp, but with loads of space. Would need a lightweight groundsheet or bivvy bag too, so probably wouldn't save that much weight over the standard inner - the complete tent is only 1.6kg.

* you can also pitch it inner only, but I have no idea why you'd want to in this country.

[gairym]

No offence obviously

of course not - i'm aware i'm a big fella.

ray,

fair enough - i've never seen/used one and so didn't know if/how it might work but it doesn't sound like it would (at least not very well).

i'm asking as i recently lost my dd 3m x 3m tarp and integral designs groundsheet and so am in the market for replacements and don't have much cash and this idea would've been a nice cheap solution had it worked.

neh worries - back to the drawing board.....

[Ray Young]

You can get a terra nova comp 1 tarp for £40 if you look around. Then get a cheap tarp from a DIY store and cut it to size to use as a groundsheet. That's what I did.

[gairym]

ray,

i got a nice little silnylon tarp from Stuart a while back (1.5m x 3.3m and 300(ish) grams) and it's fine for good weather but my bigger 3m x 3m tarp had the ability to make something a little more suited to stinky weather conditions.

so.....i could get a terra nova 'comp 2' tarp for 55 quid which is 2.5m x 3m and 550 grams and hope that my diagonal pitching method (the bottom one of the image below) is still possible (it should be and just be a bit wangy as it's not square).



hmmm.....

nothing's ever simple in this bikepacking game!

[gairym]

i'm now toying with the idea of a MYOG tarp/single-skin tent.

anyone know any resources which would outline technique, equipment needed etc...

anyone done this themselves?

anyone know of any suppliers/prices of suitable silnylon?

any/all help appreciated.

[Bearbonesnorm]

Funny you should mention this Gairy, I've just been drawing an idea for a tarp/tent hybrid ... single skin, detatchable bathtub groundsheet, open both ends but with adjustable beaks.

I've always used pointnorth.co.uk for material but there's quite a few suppliers out there.

[Nick]

anyone know any resources which would outline technique, equipment needed etc...

Your wish is my command

http://www.backpacking-lite.co.uk/index.htm

[gairym]

Funny you should mention this Gairy, I've just been drawing an idea for a tarp/tent hybrid ... single skin, detatchable bathtub groundsheet, open both ends but with adjustable beaks.

cool, any chance of seeing your blueprints (i'd need to scale up your measurements if i wanted something that would work for me)?

i took a look on that website you suggested but couldn't find anything when searching for 'silnylon' - i'm assuming that it's listed as something different but i don't know what - any idea?

Your wish is my command

thanks - funnily enough i stumbled on this website yesterday morning.

there's a whole lot of info on there for sure!

[Bearbonesnorm]

cool, any chance of seeing your blueprints (i'd need to scale up your measurements if i wanted something that would work for me)?

I'll let you take a peek once I've finished drawing it out

i took a look on that website you suggested but couldn't find anything when searching for 'silnylon' - i'm assuming that it's listed as something different but i don't know what - any idea?

Looks like they've changed the name of it to "Speedup". Link to Luxe outdoor below, you can set it up with or without the inner.
http://www.luxeoutdoor.com/eng/catalog- ... th=/12/134