How Light is Right for a Bikepacking Tent?
My first bikepacking tent was an REI Half Dome—a roomy two-person tent with two doors and a bomber build that handles rainy nights and gusty thunderstorms with ease. But at 4.75 pounds, it’s not exactly ultralight. Nonetheless, I packed it for several multi-day bikepacking trips, including the Oregon Outback, and always appreciated its interior space, weather protection and easy setup.
REI Half Dome 2-Person Tent
However, since those early bike adventures, I’ve worked to lighten my bikepacking setup. As much as the REI Half Dome tent served me well, it’s a big tent to carry on a bike. I’ve been able to trim pounds of weight and significantly reduce the overall volume of my bikepacking kit by using an ultralight backpacking tent.
Lightweight Versus Ultralight Tents
Choosing a bikepacking tent is just like choosing a lightweight backpacking tent. Once you’ve decided whether you need a one-person or two-person tent, key factors to consider are packability, durability and how well it can withstand the elements. Your available storage space, riding ambitions, weather and bug protection needs, plus the amount of money you are willing to party with, will all guide your choices.
When weather, bugs and critters are of limited concern, the lightest weight shelter option will always be a minimalist tarp or floorless single pole style shelter. Tarp shelters are the go-to option for gram counters and ultra-endurance racers. But simple tarp shelters are not always practical. More often than not, concerns like mosquitos, midges, and foul weather are a reality, and a fully enclosed tent is your best option.
Generally, bikepacking tents fall into two broad categories: Lightweight and Ultralight. Looking at two-person tents, lightweight refers to tents like the REI Half Dome that weigh four to five pounds. The weight and volume are manageable when split between two people, and these tents work best for bikepacking when using small rear panniers and or a rear rack for storage.
The two-person ultralight tent category includes tents that generally tip the scales in the two to three-pound range. These tents pack small and are decidedly minimalist in feel and design. If you’re traveling in true go-light bikepacker fashion with only a frame, handlebar and seat pack on your bike, an ultralight tent is the way to go.
Short of moving to a tarp shelter, there aren’t many full shelter tents that weigh under two pounds. They exist — but as with most ultralight gear choices, there is a trade-off in durability and features. And when it comes to tents, durability is directly related to the ability to withstand foul weather.
The Best Ultralight Bikepacking Tents
After using a variety of tents over the last few years, two ultralight bikepacking tents stand out: the MSR FreeLight and the Marmot Superalloy. Both are available as two-person tents and weigh under the three-pound mark. The Marmot Superalloy weighs 2 lb 10 oz / 1080 grams, and the MSR FreeLight weighs 2 lbs 3 oz / 1000 grams (weights include stuff sacks, poles, stakes, cordage and patch kit).
It’s possible to find a two-person tent that shaves a few more ounces off your load, but the MSR and Marmot tents offer a reasonable balance between weight, durability and cost.
The MSR FreeLight 2-Person Ultralight Tent for Bikepacking
The MSR FreeLight 2-Person tent is impressive. It’s Marmot’s lightest 2-person tent and is full-featured with two doors, decent headroom and well-placed interior mesh pockets to keep you organized for the night.
Like most ultralight tents, it’s semi-freestanding, which means the poles give it structure and shape, but it requires staking out to maximize the floor space and create a usable setup.
The pole structure uses a simple Y-shaped central pole plus a small cross-bar pole. The body is mainly mesh with a typical bathtub-style floor. It’s easy to set up and reasonably robust, given the somewhat delicate feel of the mesh and nylon materials. Weighing just over two pounds (2lb 3oz as weighed in the bag), the FreeLight is one of the lightest two-door tents on the market.
MSR FreeLight without the rain fly
Where does MSR save weight?
The first thing you’ll notice when setting up the FreeLight is it just feels light and, dare I say, delicate. Like most lightweight tents, weight savings come from many things: pole configuration, body and fly materials, ultralight cordage and mini stakes. The FreeLight saves a few ounces, in part due to its rainfly design. The rainfly is cropped on one end, saving on material use and shaving a few ounces. As a result, the head end of the tent runs a full nylon panel higher than the mesh on the rest of the tent.
In use, the tent works great. The setup is simple. The zippers feel great. The zipper length limits door access, but there is still plenty of room to enter and exit. There’s plenty of venting, thanks to the mostly micro-mesh walls.
Despite its lightweight feel, the FreeLight has weathered multiple bikepacking trips with no obvious issues and has handled modest wind with ease. I have yet to weather a blustery rain storm to thoroughly test its weather protection. However, it did pass the yard sprinkler test without issue. Nonetheless, this is what I would call a two-season tent.
How’s the Interior Space?
While not exactly roomy, the MSR FreeLight is on par with any other ultralight two-person tent for space. Its overall footprint is a true rectangle and measures 84 inches x 50 inches, offering 29 square feet of space. The headroom height is 39 inches. It’s a shoulder-to-shoulder situation inside the tent for two average-sized adults, but it’s still very livable.
The double vestibule adds about another 15 square feet in total. The double door design and, thus, individual vestibule space for each person is key to having extra personal space. There’s just enough room for keeping your shoes, helmet and a small bag under each vestibule.
The poles are compact, though not necessarily designed with bikepacking in mind. Folded pole length is 19 inches, which gives you options for where to stow them.
The tent is factory seam-sealed and includes stakes and guy lines for a proper setup. There is an optional 40-denier nylon groundsheet. If you’re into saving grams (and cash), we recommend sourcing a scrap piece of Tyvek house wrap and cutting it to match the tent footprint as your groundsheet.
Light and Fully Featured
The Marmot FreeLight checks all the ultralight tent boxes. It’s light. It’s easy to set up. It packs down small. And it’s fully featured for an ultralight design with two doors and nice internal pockets. It’s a solid choice for bikepacking (or backpacking).
Check price and availability of the MSR FreeLight direct from MSR – $450
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The Marmot Superalloy 2-Person Ultralight Tent for Bikepacking
Marmot Superalloy ultralight bikepacking tent
The Superalloy is Marmot’s lightest two-person tent. Like the MSR FreeLight, it’s a semi-freestanding design, which means that while the poles do give it structure and shape, it requires staking out to maximize the floor space and create a stable setup.
The setup is pretty simple. It features a long, Y-shaped pole similar to the MSR FreeLight, plus a separate overhead cross pole. The body is made almost entirely of mesh with a typical bathtub-style floor. Color-coded tabs make connecting the fly easy, and integrated line tensioners help make it taught.
Inside the Ultralight Superalloy
The Superalloy is a two-door tent, which means there’s vestibule space on both sides to stow a bike bag or two and your shoes. The footprint has a slightly trapezoidal shape and measures 87 inches x 42 – 50 inches. The total interior space is 28 square feet, which is adequate, though not exactly spacious for two average-size adults.
Inside, the near-vertical walls help create space, but headroom is limited to 39 inches. A few mesh pockets help with internal organization, though the side pockets are at an odd angle that kind of encourages stuff to slide out. An overhead pocket works well for small stuff like a headlamp, watch or deck of cards.
Like the MSR FreeLight, the poles are relatively compact, though not designed specifically for bikepacking. At 18.5 inches folded, they can be stowed in multiple locations on most bikepacking setups.
Lightweight Materials
While the mesh body and fly material feel light and delicate, the tent has withstood repeated weeklong trips with no rips, punctures or split seams of any sort. It has been used exclusively with a ground cloth, and while I haven’t abused the tent, I haven’t babied it either. It has weathered damp nights with good results for such a lightweight build.
Bikepacking Minimalism
The Marmot Superalloy’s minimalist design maintains all the functionality you need for lightweight bikepacking adventures. It comes seam-sealed and ready to use with all the stakes and guy lines you need for a proper setup. The footprint is available separately.
Check prices and availability of the Marmot Superalloy ultralight bikepacking tent – $430
Planning a bikepacking trip? Check out all of our bikepacking gear reviews:
Salsa Everything Cage Review
Salsa Handlebar Bag Review
Ortlieb Handlebar Bag Review
Platypus Waterfilter Review
Portable Solar Panel Review
Showers Pass Apex MTB Pants Review
Tubeless Tire Setup Tips
Support offpistemag.com by following any of the product links in this review. While the website is partially funded through affiliate sales, we only review and promote products we test and believe merit being highlighted.
