Several people have asked us about our choice of tent, therefore, we thought that we would share our thoughts.

Our original tent was a Quasar by Terra Nova, a small, but excellent 2 man mountain tent. It served us well having seen some action, withstanding force nine gales in Scotland and the ravishes of the New Guinea boring Beetle in West Pupua. After 10 years the outer was starting to suffer from sun rot and a couple of the zips needed replacing.

We took a long look around at the tents on the market. We considered buying a replacement Quasar,

Our original Quasar

The new Hilleberg Stalon GT

however with cycletouring being mainly camping at low level we didn't need a mountain tent. We also craved a bit more room, easier access and storage space for gear. We chose the Hilleberg Stalon GT for the following reasons:

1. The build quality is excellent and the fabrics are top quality (Kerlon 1200 is very strong and durable).

2. It has a good reputation.

3. The Stalon GT is very roomy and weighs only 4.3 Kg. Compared to the Quasar it gave us much more space for the same weight.

4. The 2 vestibules give you plenty of space to store gear and cook, particularly on those wet days. If you have small mountain bikes you can even store the bikes in the large vestibule.(See the picture on the Hilleberg web site)

5. Good mosquito netting on all the doors and vents, found this very useful in Poland and Finland.

6. The Stalon GT has 2 entrances one at the front and one at the rear, very useful when the weather changes. The inner tent has a very good zip arrangement allowing the whole door to be unzipped to one side allowing you easy access to both of the vestibules.

The rear door entrance you can see how both inner doors can be zipped right back.

The entrance showing plenty of room for storage and cooking.

7. Good size doors for easy access, it's a lot easier to get yourself and your gear in.

8. Small pole size when packed, the packed length is 368mm, which means that they fit easily into the Ortlieb Racpacs.

9. The inner sleeping area is basically the same size as the Quasar and at 2100mm x 1300mm is plenty big enough.

10. Good height inside to allow 2 peolpe to sit alongside each other.

11. The Inner tent can be left attached to the outer making it easier to pitch or can be removed. This is useful when striking camp in the pouring rain. Having a large vestbule you can pack every thing in the dry, remove the inner tent, then all you have to do is don waterproofs, collapse the outer tent and load your bikes.

Like every tent there are some slight niggles:-

1. Being a large tent with quite a few guy lines it does need a larger plot than our smaller tent.

2. Like all tents it can suffer from condensation. On a still windless balmy night you really do need the end vents open, as the outer can produce at lot of condensation which doesn't cause too much of a problem as it normally runs down the sides harmlessly out of the way, but the doors in the mornings can be covered in condensation (drips down your back etc.).

3. Because it has large vestibules that contain a lot of air we don't find it quite as cosy as our smaller tent was,(if you are going to warm Mediterranean areas this will not be a problem).

4. The inner has 2 pockets for small items, 2 more or larger pockets would have been nice, but I can see why they limited it, as it might make the inner sag down too much.

To sum up, the positives by far out weight the negatives. Yes the Stalon GT is at the top end price wise, but then you do get a quality product for your money. Our cycle tours often last 5 weeks or more, therefore we need a tent that is robust and that we can depend on. We have been very happy with our choice and now wonder how we ever managed without it.

PS. One other positive that we haven't mentioned, you may have noticed the blue Ortlieb folding bucket in the large vestibule - need we say more!

PPS. Since writing this review, as of the start of the 2005 Hilleberg have withdrawn this model from production. this is a shame as it an excellent tent. The nearest equivalent model is the Keron GT as this has the entrances at both ends.

The rear vestibule which gives good storage room as well as good access through the rear door.