thanks hobbes.
after all your experience, I'd be interested in your personal check/wishlist for a touring tent.
apologies if you have posted this already.
Honestly? My opinion is that what someone thinks doesn't matter a lot for me and my tent. The trick is to know what you're buying, why you're buying it and what you're missing by buying it.
My current Exped was bought for an expedition. It was going to be my shelter, my refuge, my home for up to two years, maybe longer.
For that it had to be big enough, strong enough and be able to be used freestanding.
Random thoughts in no particular order;
Coffin tents are not for me. I like comfort (and my sanity) and would always go a size up.
I want a sheltered porch that I can cook in.
Tent design.
I like tunnels. There's a lot of space. The better ones have porches that are usable in foul weather, but only one door is a disadvantage. I've had great fun putting mine up in high winds, there are some designs I know my tent would blow away!
Tipi design are actually quite good. I really liked mine, but it was too small for an expedition and needed pegging out, although it did have several redundancy options - a stick (or even a tree) for a pole, adjustment from inside etc.
I've avoided inner first pitches because of the risk of a rainstorm pitching. The reality is I rarely pitch my all-in-one in the rain. I wait!
Easily detached inners are a great way of increasing space under cover when not sleeping. (My inner detaches and can be used without the fly - in theory. The reality is that's so impractical as to be useless).
I prefer two doors for ventilation, storage and access.
For materials, I'd avoid a silnylon tent (except a tipi design). It sags. A lot. And subsequently contracts. On the Exped, the combination of a "flappy" side and significant sagging is not a happy combination. In a tipi it can be adjusted by raising (or lowering) the pole.
The material on my old Coleman was (nylon, I think) as tough as old boots and very forgiving for this beginner. It sagged only when absolutely soaking and the design was so simple the outer never touched the inner.
Some people want something as light as possible.
Others want something big enough for their bike to be inside too.
Some want the strongest, most bulletproof thing and some just want the cheapest. Nobody's wrong.
If I could have made my old Coleman freestanding I probably never would have looked at another.
I seriously considered bringing two tents on my travels - my Hexpeak (tipi) and an AliExpress freestanding. I figured all bases were covered. It would have been lighter than my current set up!
As I said above, crawl in one before you buy. Go places and see what other people are using. Have a good think about what you need, want and would like. Then go looking for what's out there. Looking first would just flummox me!
A penultimate thought for anyone starting off. Speaking for myself, my touring has evolved a little bit from where I started, a luggage service carrying my gear from hotel to hotel, to a little bit more adventurous.😊 I really hadn't a clue of the freedom to be enjoyed on a bike. I only bought a tent because I couldn't afford hotels on a longer trip. If I had bought gear (Ortliebs excepted) at the start based on what I
thought I'd be doing I'd have been putting a limit on future experiences.
Whatever you choose know that something is going to happen that you never thought about - you just have to be able to remain calm and gently usher the cat away.
