I'm hoping to draw on your collective experience with this predicament folks.
I've bought a shelter which needs either one or two walking poles (depending on flysheet only or fly and inner) to erect it.
I bought it because of its weight and dimensions (approx 900g complete nut excluding pole/s).
Each of my walking poles weighs 300g so I'm looking for a lighter alternative to walking poles.
I need a height of approx 125cm for both poles.
They need to hAve a point into the ground but not so they'll sink into the ground.
They need to be kind to the fly and inner just as the handle of the walking pole is.
What are your recommendations please?
Thanks in advance, Nathan

http://www.bearbonesbikepacking.co.uk/s ... at=shelter ... but I would say that

You won't find better than Stu's for value or quality Mine are several years old and still good as new.

Thanks for that guys. I have looked at those but was wondering if there's a MYOG alternative. I have some old thin tent poles as a starting point but it'll be the first time I try doing anything like this.

If you've got some old tent poles, you should be able to knock something up. The problem with using tent poles is that many are designed to bend, which is a trait you really don't want in poles used for tarps / tarp tents / etc. However, depending on the poles, it might work fine.

Thanks Stuart. So I need a more rigid pole for this setup?
What weight do your aluminium and carbon 130cm poles come in at Stu?

So I need a more rigid pole for this setup?

What's the shelter?

What weight do your aluminium and carbon 130cm poles come in at Stu?

Aluminium is still out of stock - sorry. Actually, given the state of the pound, there's a chance it might never return as carbon might begin to work out as the cheaper option.

Anyway, to give you an idea a 110m long pole in carbon will weight around 70g (weights alter by a few g per pole due to the resin).

When my wife and I started bikepacking I made some tarp poles out of old tent poles that I had lying around - they came from a Wild Country SuperNova that had succumbed to UV degradation. I worked out how big the pole at each end needed to be and figured out how many sections were required for each before cutting the existing sections down to a suitable length that would fit in my frame bag. I couldn't get the stops out so mine don't have shock cord in them, makes it a bit more awkward when setting up camp.

Hi Stu its a Geertop 1 man ultralight pyramid tent.
https://www.geertop.com/product-page/ge ... or-camping

Looking at the pics, it seems that as 'fly only', a single pole is required but 2 are needed with the inner? ... which is a bit of a shame

A single pole of the correct length will be vertical so under compression with minimal bending force applied to it ... this generally means a thinner / more flexible pole will suffice.

Using 2 poles off-set, places far more bending force on them meaning any flex / weakness will be amplified.

Also, I can't quite work out why you only need 2 poles of the same length. To set it up both ways, you'll require 3 poles as a single pole used in 'fly only' mode will be shorter than the off-set poles used when the inner's deployed ... and whatever you do, don't be tempted to 'shorten' a pole by pushing the end into the ground - down that path lies only snapping

So this is a prototype kind of idea.
Old poles found on a field a couple of years ago. They are 9.5mm external diameter.
2 axle protectors as supplied with new wheelset.
1 old inner tube.
To achieve the correct height there's 2 sections to each pole (3 shorter sections would be ideal).
Do you think it'll work?
Due to recovery from injury and having no mates I'm unable to test it out for a while.
Please let me know your thoughts.
https://goo.gl/photos/nCsXN4mYUniU6gS78

No reason it shouldn't work okay ... you might need to cut down the axle caps to fit inside the pockets for the inner but otherwise

The axle caps are for the feet Stu. I thought they would stop the poles sinking into the ground?

The axle caps are for the feet Stu. I thought they would stop the poles sinking into the ground?

They will ... good thinking