After using my old Taurus the other night it's amazing how 1.5 kg feels on the bike compared to when I used to carry it in a sack ,so I was thinking about a tarp and bivy bag was looking on alpkit at bicycle 3.5 and the 7 (neither in-stock in green ) ,which would you recommend as a solo shelter
Cheers
Stuart

3.5. 7's fine but really too big for solo use ... it's also more difficult to pitch well due to the size.

Hi Stuart, I`ve got a R I g 7 and it`s plenty big when used as a solo shelter, not a bad thing, a comfortable "tent like" tarp can be achieved.
I`ve also a much smaller tarp, similar to a R I g 3.5, it`s a totally different animal, this one I use for fast and light and short nights sleep.
I`m glad I have both, but very different.
Rob.

DD superlight S for me, similar size to 3.5, I use it in better weather with light weight Borah Gear bag. http://www.aboveandbeyond.co.uk/Products/0705422505514/

The R3.5 is fine for solo use, in fact for a while we used it for two of us and there was room enough until we got inflatable mats and suddenly your nose was pressed against the roof! The R7 is pretty big and offers more than enough room for two even with winter kit. The R3.5 could do with being a bit wider, it's only 1400mm wide, it would be better being around 1800mm.

As Stu says 3.5 + bivibag is popular. The 7 is indeed potentially too big & harder to pitch but I quite like the fact that I don't then need a bivi bag and I can get my bike under it and change clothes etc too. Could treat yourself to both and have fun finding out .

Rich3rd wrote:DD superlight S for me, similar size to 3.5, I use it in better weather with light weight Borah Gear bag. http://www.aboveandbeyond.co.uk/Products/0705422505514/

Any idea on the delivery times for the borah gear bags mate

RIP wrote:As Stu says 3.5 + bivibag is popular. The 7 is indeed potentially too big & harder to pitch but I quite like the fact that I don't then need a bivi bag and I can get my bike under it and change clothes etc too. Could treat yourself to both and have fun finding out .

Being my first year reg I think it's gonna be a bit of trial and error so I may end up with way more tarps and kit than I actually need , I don't mind heavy kit in the winter but I'd like to be able to get my sleeping kit in two gorrilla cages for the summer or even possibly one

I did a bivvy month in 2015 without a tarp, because I hadn't decided what to get, then they were out of stock, then I discovered I didn't need one.

I was doing one night trips though. For two or more nights keeping your sleeping bag/quilt dry is a priority, and I'd always take a tarp on multi night rides these days to help me achieve that.

3.5 gets my vote, along with Stu's pitching guide blog post. I agree it should be 40cm wider though (the tarp, not the blog post).

middleagedmadness wrote:

Rich3rd wrote:DD superlight S for me, similar size to 3.5, I use it in better weather with light weight Borah Gear bag. http://www.aboveandbeyond.co.uk/Products/0705422505514/

Any idea on the delivery times for the borah gear bags mate

I'm waiting on a couple of Borah Gear bivvies, was quoted around five weeks to delivery, I'd guess at a week beyond that to actually receiving them.

whitestone wrote:

middleagedmadness wrote:

Rich3rd wrote:DD superlight S for me, similar size to 3.5, I use it in better weather with light weight Borah Gear bag. http://www.aboveandbeyond.co.uk/Products/0705422505514/

Any idea on the delivery times for the borah gear bags mate

I'm waiting on a couple of Borah Gear bivvies, was quoted around five weeks to delivery, I'd guess at a week beyond that to actually receiving them.

Mine took about 6 weeks to turn up. Don't forget you'll be hit for import duty & VAT on top. Great bit of kit, packs down to nothing so would work with your gorilla cage thought, its not full blown waterproof though.

Top tip if you get a Borah Gear, put a few squiggles of seam sealer on the inside bottom, stops your mat sliding around .

I have a second-hand Rig 7 and a smaller (non-Alpkit) tarp.

I've never used the Rig 7. I've retained it in the event I need to share a tarp with someone or for use when car- or motorbike- camping.

On that basis, I'd go for a smaller tarp.

Cheers Whitestone / rich even with the vat and import duty it's still not a bad price for dropping a kilo off my shelter and only want it for the summer ,if I get on with tarps then I'll look for a more robust bag for the winter
Scotroutes there is no way anybody would want to share a tarp with me and my snoring

This guy (Scotty) will make you Anything you want at Any size you want! Tarp/Bivi/Quilt/hammock and he's in the Uk so no import duty, its Top Quality stuff too
https://bespokeultralight.com/blog/

whitestone wrote:The R3.5 could do with being a bit wider, it's only 1400mm wide, it would be better being around 1800mm.

I think the width is a result of the fabric width they're made from. My MYOG small flat tarp is 2.4m x 1.4m as the fabric is about 1500mm wide with a rough edge. By the time you've trimmed off the edge and hemmed it it ends up at approx 1.4 wide. To make it wider, even by only 400mm, you'd have to sew another bit on. This would end up as the ridge down the middle or it would look odd so making a tarp at 1.8m wide would use two bits about 850mm wide sewn together. The left over but would be about 550mm wide so basically wastage. It would cost the same in material as a tarp about 2.8m wide and if you're going to the effort of a ridge seam you might as well have a wider tarp.

It's a shame they don't make the material at 2.0m width, but all fabric seems to come at the 1.5m width so I guess it's limited by the machinery they make it on? Maybe it's always been that wide? Probably the fault of the Victorian mill owners, perhaps 5 ft was the widest loom a 7 year old boy could manage to look after?

Sounds a reasonable reason, or set of reasons. There's a lot of sizings that have their basis back in some weird reasoning, sometimes there's no real reason. The fabric width may have come about because that was the maximum you could reach across from either side to fix something without fouling the machinery? A quick search shows 1500mm and 1600mm widths of silnylon available.

Reducing wastage of raw material is always an aim in manufacturing but unless the manufacturer was only making tarps then it can always be used for something else.

Is there any reason why you couldn't have a transverse seam? So one piece of material 1900mm x 1600mm plus a piece 1900mm x 800mm would give you a tarp 2300 x 1800 with no wastage as the smaller section is half the fabric width so the "waste" can be used on the next tarp. It wouldn't look symmetrical though.

Just to muddy the waters what about the Ali Express Trailstar?
Get you and your bike underneath.

whitestone wrote: It wouldn't look symmetrical though.

I think that might be the reason. Having a non-symmetrical seam would keep me awake at night, which kind of defeats the object of a tarp, but that's probably just me There is no practical reason I can think of. Some modern tents have seams in all sorts of places and are cut from loads of shaped panels to get a geodesic shape.

Mariner wrote:Just to muddy the waters what about the Ali Express Trailstar?
Get you and your bike underneath.

Why do you need to get your bike underneath? I let mine wander around the fields grazing and having fun. Or is that the horse

Mariner wrote:Just to muddy the waters what about the Ali Express Trailstar?
Get you and your bike underneath.

Great bit of kit imho.
And yup, it’s like Billy Smarts Circus tent- it’s huge.

Looked at that trailstar ,I'd be like Billy Smarts performing elephant trying to put that up,think I'll settle on DD super light s not sure what bivy bag yet and I'll be in touch with Stu for some poles in the near future

I'll settle on DD super light s not sure what bivy bag yet and I'll be in touch with Stu for some poles in the near future

I'm sure there's nothing wrong with the above but the additional panel tie-outs on the alpkit tarps make quite a difference in how they pitch / what you can do.

Bearbonesnorm wrote:

I'll settle on DD super light s not sure what bivy bag yet and I'll be in touch with Stu for some poles in the near future

I'm sure there's nothing wrong with the above but the additional panel tie-outs on thr alpkit tarps make quite a difference in how they pitch / what you can do.

This why I love posting on here when I'm not 100% sure what to get , now any suggestions for bivy bags ,already looked at the borah and are quite interested ?

For use with a tarp, the Borah is probably one of the lightest bags available. They're also big enough to put your mat inside which can be handy. The Ti - Goat Kestrel is also another I like. Again, very light and bug proof but not waterproof, also, too small to put a mat inside.

The lightest waterproof bag I've used is a Mountain Hardwear Ion - still available if your googlefue is strong

Bearbonesnorm wrote:

I'll settle on DD super light s not sure what bivy bag yet and I'll be in touch with Stu for some poles in the near future

I'm sure there's nothing wrong with the above but the additional panel tie-outs on the alpkit tarps make quite a difference in how they pitch / what you can do.

True, but still quite flexible