Has anyone previously planned routes to utilise a Tarp & Hammock?
This is what I used when I Bike packed from North to South Wales and had a really comfy nights sleep, tempted to use it on this years event, but curious if anyone has accommodated this arrangement with any real success, as it can potentially save a bit of weight and space?

Hi and welcome to the forum

Not something I do myself but there are quite a few swingers... oops, sorry... hammock users on here who I'm sure will be along soon to compare notes

With regard to saving weight and space, that's all relative; there are some seriously lightweight set-ups from bivvy bag, to bivvy bag + tarp, to sleeping bag + tarp and so on and you can get tents at well under 1kg these days so throwing a hammock into the mix may not be the lightest option. We all make are own choices between weight, space and comfort though.

Welcome!

I've bikepacked with both ground and hammock based setups but there's a few others on here who've done a lot more hammocking than I have so take this with a grain (or kilo) of salt.

My lightest, i.e. summer only, ground setup is a mere 920g but that's basically for racing/emergency use, a more realistic weight swaps out the super light (and small) mat for a better one and adds 250g, let's call it a round 1200g.

My hammock setup uses the same quilt but as a top quilt and then uses a 3 season underquilt so not the lightest but it's what I've got. I use an Alpkit Rig7 as a tarp, again not the lightest but I've the material to make a tarp all ready, I just need to learn to sew Along with the hammock it all comes to 1625g so 425g heavier. If I used the lighter summer underquilt from the same manufacturer (Cumulus) then I'd save 230g, my homemade tarp will be around 250g lighter so the weight then would be around 1150g, pretty much the same. That doesn't include any sort of bug protection on the hammock.

Perhaps the main "problem" with bikepacking with a hammock is finding somewhere suitable since it's not a case of "just use two trees". But really it's no different to finding a suitable ground bivy spot, just different requirements.

Like most, I find hammocks very comfy but rarely use them as I find them quite 'faffy', that they reduce my available overnight options and it's heavier than sleeping on the floor. However, some folk enjoy the faff, are happy to plan routes around finding trees and perhaps either dismiss any weight handicap or maybe their hammock set up is lighter than other options they have? Horses for courses but generally I always aim to increase my options rather than limit them.

I don't find it any lighter with any of my combo's of hammock/tarp Vs ground dwelling.
Sadly most of the weirdos that I bikepack with are all for the floor so I don't get to use my hammock much in the BB events.
When I have, it's been brilliant due to the comfort factor and finding a stand of trees has never really been a problem, just start looking earlier for spots or ride a bit further.

My hammock camping set up was assembled for canoe camping where weight wasn't a real consideration so it's a lot more heavy and bulky than most of my ground sleeping arrangements. That said I have used it once for bikepacking and it was a godsend as the area where we stopped for the night (the banks of Loch Shiel south of Glenfinnan) had very few decent ground camping spots but lots of trees for hammocking. I presume that lighter weight hammocks exist than my DD Frontline that would be more suitable for bikepacking.

Taylor wrote: ↑Tue Feb 08, 2022 3:28 pm Sadly most of the weirdos that I bikepack with ...

< whole forum stands around whistling softly whilst gazing at a vague distant point and looking innocent >

Jurassic wrote: ↑Tue Feb 08, 2022 3:39 pm My hammock camping set up was assembled for canoe camping where weight wasn't a real consideration so it's a lot more heavy and bulky than most of my ground sleeping arrangements. That said I have used it once for bikepacking and it was a godsend as the area where we stopped for the night (the banks of Loch Shiel south of Glenfinnan) had very few decent ground camping spots but lots of trees for hammocking. I presume that lighter weight hammocks exist than my DD Frontline that would be more suitable for bikepacking.

This was my setup from last year's JennRide, I committed to using a hammock so I had to find suitable trees (in the Lakes) whilst also being close to somewhere Cath could bivy on the ground. Fortunately we managed it.





I had: Homemade hammock - 500g including suspension; Alpkit Rig7 tarp - 670g; Cumulus 150 quilt - 360g; Cumulus Selva 250 underquilt - 590g including suspension. That was all in the front roll on the bike, it's more bulk than weight but is still 2kg.

There's only so much lighter you can make the hammock depending on your weight - the really lightweight materials have a weight limit and <cough>some of us</cough> might be pushing that limit. Depending on expected night time temps you might not be able to get away with lighter quilts - the Cumulus 150 is their lightest anyway and the 150 underquilt is definitely summer only. So the tarp is the only piece left on which to save weight. The Rig7 is heavy and big, it's also slightly awkwardly sized - just too short in A-frame mode for my 3.3m hammock but when on the diagonal as in the above shot the ridgeline is so long that it has to sit quite high above the hammock*. I'm halfway through making an asymmetrical tarp that will be in the 250g range but such a small tarp comes with its own potential problems in that you have to set it up fairly precisely. If I had a shorter hammock (c. 2.8m) then the Alpkit Rig3.5 on the diagonal would actually work well as an Asym.

*Stealth edit: Generally you want a tarp with a ridgeline that's around the same length as your hammock when it's laid flat. When the hammock "shortens" due to its sag you get roughly 30cm extra cover at each end and this isn't enough to force the tarp to be set up higher to avoid interfering with the hammock suspension. Again, there's a lot of playing around (faff ) to find the optimum.

In a previous thread, I think Stu was asking about it for his tome, we came to the conclusion that you'd take the bike to go hammocking rather than the other way round and that you probably had an overnight destination in mind.

Yeah, I used my Rig7 as well and found it to be less than ideal (I used to use a DD Tarp XL canoe camping but it's really heavy and bulky). Luckily my buddy on the Loch Shiel trip had his DD Tarp XL with him (he was the driving force in wanting to hammock camp on that trip) and we were able to make a tarp city arrangement with both tarps that gave us both great coverage as it was pissing down. I think maybe the DD super light tarp would be a better off the shelf option than the Rig7 as it's 3x3m rather than 3x2.7m (or whatever the Rig7 is).

Jurassic wrote: ↑Tue Feb 08, 2022 4:26 pm Yeah, I used my Rig7 as well and found it to be less than ideal (I used to use a DD Tarp XL canoe camping but it's really heavy and bulky). Luckily my buddy on the Loch Shiel trip had his DD Tarp XL with him (he was the driving force in wanting to hammock camp on that trip) and we were able to make a tarp city arrangement with both tarps that gave us both great coverage as it was pissing down. I think maybe the DD super light tarp would be a better off the shelf option than the Rig7 as it's 3x3m rather than 3x2.7m (or whatever the Rig7 is).

I have the DD hammock and Super Light Tarp, I found it was a great solution when I did North to South Wales, the spot we choose was a little off track but nothing extreme and due to the weather (throwing it down all day and night) gave a really comfortable nights sleep without lying on wet ground, I agree that you need some knowledge of the terrain your entering with just a Hammock and may limit options a little. Thankfully I don't mind enclosed spaces, so with my mummy bag I'm sorted.
The only issue we had was a squirrel that climbed down from the tree that the bikes were perched against and had a midnight feast on the cork handlebar tape. I told my mate that he needs to stop bringing his pets on camp with him.

I’ve done 7 WRTs with my hammock. That’s fourteen nights out, and only once had to sleep on the floor outside (and two nights in bothys). I use DD Hammocks Superlight tarp and hammock that adds up to 1.2 kg if I include the bug net. I don’t take pegs, reasoning if I’m in the woods, there’ll always be sticks I can use instead. That’s just the bed/shelter however. I haven’t included an under quilt, but either way there’d have to be something to keep me warm underneath - under quilt, or mat and ground sheet.

It’s not too hard to plan my routes to include a woodland finish and I think it’s well worth the slight extra faff to get a comfortable nights sleep. Not to mention the extra space available under cover for setting up my bed, for cooking, eating and packing away. Hammocks naturally lend themselves for just lying in and reading, swigging a nightcap or listening to music, or a podcast, maybe.

Roll on the next WRT, when I’ll be bringing a hammock for sure.

psling wrote: ↑Tue Feb 08, 2022 12:41 pm Hi and welcome to the forum

Not something I do myself but there are quite a few swingers... oops, sorry... hammock users on here who I'm sure will be along soon to compare notes

sorry they are late to the party, a few camp types were keeping them up late night...