hit up kumo Keith, he’s the man to talk to about bivys I believe.
as for the rest, u’ll see what I got in this thread somewhere. I got my stuff from bogong equipment in town & mountain designs. staff @ bogong were great.
Ta, yeah saw kumos dugout bivy in another thread i think. Will keep in mind. thanks for the bogong link, they and macpac seem to be the only local stores actually selling bivys?
Also, hoping for peeps to weigh in with some personal experience of various bivys, or links to what other crazy bike packers/tour dividers have been using to sleep.
I bought this one man tent off this ebay seller. It was cheap at $120 and packs small n light.
Black Wolf Cocoon Bivy Adventure Hiking Tent 1 1kg | eBay
It’s good enough, only thing is being that small you obviously cant fit your bag in the tent with you, or maybe could squish one in if it wasnt massive. PS in the below pic it’s the smallest green one. Thats camping on New years eve, so good. I like it because its got little windows at the head end, or as seen in the pic the fly is undone, and underneath is a 3/4 fly screen, so on summer night you could have it really open up to the sky.
backpackinglight.com.au | Backpacking Light – Australia’s Ultralight Gear Store, Clothing, Packs and Tents and Gear for Hiking, Bikeing and Adventure Racing is good, they do bivies etc. They often have stuff real cheap on sale too.
On recent overnighter in the alps I used :
Black Diamond Big Wall Bivy - not the lightest but is waterproof (2.5 layer goretex-like material), would use in rain with no tarp.
Thermarest Neoair All Season mat - good down to subzero temps as name suggests.
Sea to Summit Talus 1 down sleeping bag - rated -5deg, packs down small.
None of those are super lightweight but I chose them for safety in alpine conditions (snow, rain, wind etc.). I got bag from Backpacking Light (awesome sale price), mat from Paddy Pallin (not cheap but PP never is), bivy I got online from Pinnacle Sports (Aussie online store). I would have bought from one of the big US sites like campsaver.com or backcountry.com but there’s stupid restrictions on what brands they can ship to Australia e.g. none of them ship Black Diamond or Thermarest to oz. Buying online from an Aussie site is still cheaper than going to retail shop though.
For Tour Divide level stuff (read: ultralight) look at :
Mountain Laurel Designs
ZPacks
Borah Gear
They’re all tiny operations that make to order (sometimes long waits) out of stuff like cuben fibre - very light, strong and exxy.
TD’s finishing up for the year so get on bikepacking.net and watch as everyone publishes their gear lists and dissects the top riders’ setups - best way to learn.
^ Ta angry awesome advice.
ended up with a decent deal on a Rab bivy today. Was more than I set out to spend, and definitely above what i’ll probably need, but getting it on the spot and good discount was enough to convince me.
Will test outside tonight.
Now to just slowly save up for everything else I have to get :S
I recently bent a couple of tent poles on our family tent and, while I had good fun bending them back to kind of straight, I think this is a great reason to buy a schweeeet new tent.
The one child policy is alive and well at our place, and while the current tent (marmot limelight 4, DAC pressfit poles incase you’re interested) is nice and roomy and sometimes its nice to have that space, I think a 3 person tent will be fine for at least another 5 or so years.
so, I REALLY dig the look of the Hilleberg Nammatj 3 GT.
Hilleberg the Tentmaker - Black Label Tents - Nammatj 3 GT
GT for the bikes under cover when that needs to happens, a massive vent at either end for ventilation (big advantage over the Nallo, to my mind) and their toughest floor so that a groundsheet sounds optional for most outings.
Anyone have one of these/spent time one and have any feedback? We’d be using it for everything… beach camping, snow camping, rocky thrash fests, etc. Needs to also be ableto handle 3 people at 6ft plus height, which it seems would be no problem.
I don’t really see any downsides to the tent but would like to be assured that the ventialtion is good enough through summer and maybe any dealings with warranty/support in aus.
Nice tents, they always get great reviews.
My understanding is their tents have a integrated inner/outer fly construction so you can’t remove the fly in summer, potentially hot??
Nah, the Nammatj and a bunch of others all have quick clip-in and out inners, and also have separate full mesh inners for $190 that I’d be keen on. They pitch together once they are clipped togehter, though. Have you seen the size of that vent, H? Far out, I can feel the wind (draft) in me hairs already!
Coincidentally, I just got an email informing me that my Nammatj 2 had shipped.
I’ll practice setting it up a couple of times before we fly off to Patagonia so if you’re in Melbourne you’re welcome to swing by and check it out. If summer finally arrives you might get a sense for how it would go in warm weather…
Btw there’s a guy in Tassie who sells them through gumtree at pretty good prices. If you search Hilleberg in West Hobart you should find all his stuff.
ah, i’ll def be keen to hear what you think of it! I’m not in melb, but i love looking at pics on the internet 
And yep, I was thinking of that guy in west hobart.
Will put some pics up when it arrives then!
Not sure if it’s what you mean but I don’t think you can pitch the inner only. All the poles/pegs seem to connect to the outer. The outer is meant to function well as a standalone “fast and light” shelter or separate shelter for gear, though.
I’ve only just come into this thread and can’t say I’ve read it all, but just a couple of points.
First, a bit of caution in using a bivy-bag as a tent alternative for cycling. They are very light, but are designed primarily for use in the mountains above the snow line - that is, cold, dry air. Below the tree line in warmer and moister environments they can get quite damp and uncomfortable, even when made out of eVent. You could maybe carry it just as an emergency, and otherwise sleep out under the stars, but then they’re absolute shit if its raining (cf snowing. Waterproof yes, but you’re gonna steam it up especially when the outer fabric wets out), and you’d be better off under a tarp (see below).
The better alternative at lower altitudes is to just carry an ultralite tarp, or tarp-style tent - eg Black Diamond Megamid. One night in the NZ Alps when a very mean storm came in I found a boulder which had a slight overhang, hammered in a piton on the roof, clipped the top of the Megamid in that and then snoozed happily. The storm was so mean it caused an avalanche on the Vampire peak which set off about 3 on the richter scale (so I was later told) - the wind drove into the tarp all night but it held beautifully. They’re fucking ace.
If you’re just cycling, MSR tents are ok, but I don’t really rate them for hard bushwalking or mountain use - fly never comes far down enough to the ground so you get lots of wind, splashback and a wet inner tent. I also warn against siliconised nylon fly material - way too stretchy, although it is light and ubiquitous. If you’ve ever been out in the rain in one you’ll know how much it sags by morning, and more often than not in order to keep the fly from touching the inner you have to get out and re-tension it. Mont make their Moondance tents (or used to at least) with siliconised polyester - it doesn’t stretch. It’s maybe not quite as strong, but you’re never going to notice that - I spent a few nights in Patagonia in an exposed spot in a polyester tent in the strongest gustiest wind ever and it held fine. Also, always carry spare guy-lines - they’re one of the most useful parts of your tent and many manufacturers don’t include them for free, which is stupid. Mont tents are great - I’ve got the 2-man Moondance and love it. I’ve also got a one-man Macpac Microlight which is good and a 3-man MSR Holler which is pretty enormous for its weight. But my favourite is my old heavy Fairydown Attack mountain tent - oh the memories in that beast.
A couple of other things I’d add. After having used a whole range of mats, and having worked for the Australian importer of Exped gear (ie down mats) for a couple of years, I always return to my 2.5cm thick short-length Thermarest (I’m 6’2" btw). In my view it’s the best for weight, size, comfort and warmth. As to length - pack something else under your feet - in the mountains I coil my rope up under my feet, when bushwalking I use my pack or if my pack is muddy my extra clothes. As to warmth - I’ve slept many nights on glaciers with just that between me and the ice and it’s been fine; thicker mats are just too heavy. As to comfort - well, harden up I say - I’ve still had some on my best sleeps ever on a thermarest.
Sleeping bags are something you should spend good money on. More so than the sleeping mat - eg, if I only had $500 I’d spend $490 on the sleeping bag and $10 on a cheap closed-cell foam mat (which are also pretty great - cheap, light, completely underrated these days - just a bit bulky is all, but strap it over your panniers!). Buy good quality down, always, fuck synthetic. Use a waterproof compression stuff sack (those sea to summit ones are a bit heavy - check out the GraniteGear ones, they’re the best). Make sure it’s got a good water-resistant outer (pertex, dryloft, etc) but don’t worry about waterproof. My general do everything bag has 600g of down in it. That’s a lot - and it works well in Aus winter (eg SW Tassie mid-winter), and also NZ or continental summers in the mountains. But I also use it most of the year except high summer - just drape it over you on warm nights - a good 600g bag will only weighs a bit over 1kg and lighter summer bags don’t weigh much less but are way colder. I’ve found 400g of down to be way too cold, for example, in the Grampians in both spring and autumn. Also don’t let anyone tell you to buy anything but a mummy-shaped bag. You can still unzip it and use it as a blanket, and you can still zip two together (but you have separate feet sections, which is kinda nice). Rectangular bags are stupid. Mont make great bags, use incredible down, and they’re Australian. Buy from them.
Finally, buy a multi-fuel MSR (eg Whisperlite Int’l). Don’t bother dicking around with a lightweight titanium canister stove. I have both, and I’ve had a whole range of other stoves. Whatever you do don’t buy a fucking Jetboil (I actually got given one of these, and it just ended up living in my car as an emergency coffee machine). I basically only use the canister stove now as a spare when I’m car camping, or sometimes, maybe on a single night overnighter when I know it’s gonna be still and I won’t be doing much boiling. But the MSR, while heavier, is excellent. Very user-serviceable too - which is great - mine’s now been going strong for over 10 years, it has been to almost every major mountain range in the world, I’ve eaten probably 1000 meals on it, and all I’ve done to it is changed a couple of O-rings. Multi-fuel is essential if you’re heading around the world - shellite or its equivalents can be hard to find. If you’re on a long tour use unleaded fuel, burns great and is very very cheap obviously. A spork (only!) and good titanium pots (snowpeak are ace) also come recommended, albeit pricey. [EDIT: I should add, don’t worry too much about simmer control, you can get fairly ok modulation with the Whisperlite if you keep the gas pressure low, and sometimes hold the pot a bit higher. But that said I don’t care all that much for bush gourmet and tend towards simple, quick and fuel efficient meals. And the MSR Dragonfly is too loud - destroys the serenity, and can lead to camp fights.]
Also, absolutely every single one of you should buy some Swedish Firesteel - keep one with your cookset, keep are spare in your first aid kit, just make sure you have one (or two)! Light My Fire - Swedish FireSteel 2.0 ®
Yep, poles go through sleeves in outers, inners clip to outers. Moontrail site mentions pitching inner alone, though. Maybe the full mesh inner has a sleeve and some tieout loops.
Diddy, there is some gold in there! Interesting that you didn’t rate the exped downmats above the thermarest. Firesteel is so nice, and its a great toy for kids.
My terra nova definitely does get a fair droop going when wet but so far has done a decent job. I’m leaning to heavier, more reliable gear in all aspects these days, and I’d buy a different solo tent if I was buying today. Interesting, too, that mont uses polyester.
The downmat and I just never gelled. It’s partly personal, as I like a firm flat bed (I use a futon at home) and I like a simple bed (it always pissed me off having to inflate it with the bag - self-inflating FTW). I also hate it on tent-bound bad-weather days - so much easier to sit on / hang out / sort gear out on the thermarest.
I have a lot of ultra light gear. I also have a fair range of heavier reliable gear. What to take depends a lot on the objective - much like which bike to ride.
Also, Mont use siliconised polyester, rather than polyurethane-coated polyester. Back in the day all tents were PU-poly then sil-nylon came around and everyone went with that - nylon is stronger, so could be thinner, and PU didn’t bond well with nylon (I think because nylon stretches but PU doesn’t), not sure why silicone was a late bloomer. Doesn’t seem like many do sil-poly like Mont, but it seems to keep weight down (perhaps not as low as sil-nylon) while reducing stretch.
could be my cheaper Mountain Designs sleeping bag, could just be the way they are, but does anyone else constantly wake up covered in tiny feathers after a night in their down bag?!?!
every morning…
Not normal. Check fit tears/holes. My ancient ancient (20yo) Mountain Designs bag leaks a bit at the seams these days, not normal from new though.
bugger.
just checked it inside & out & nothing obvious. will try & find a MD store when I get to Portland.
When you say “covered”, what do you mean? A few feathers here and there isn’t that abnormal.
well I’m not talkin hundreds, more like enough tiny white feathers/fibres to make my black jumper & jeans look like it went through the wash with a tissue or two…
Check for geese in the bag