Mountain Hardwear SuperMegaUL 1 tent

There's a fine balance to be struck with a tent for bikepacking or touring between comfort, weight, packsize and ease of use. The Mountain Hardwear SuperMegaUL 1 is definitely light, packs down small and goes up easily, which all makes for an excellent start.

The SuperMegaUL 1 is Mountain Hardwear's lightest one-man (or woman) tent, and is aimed squarely at fast and light backpackers and cyclists, or anyone for whom low overall weight and compact packsize are absolutely crucial.

It's made using some of the lightest fabrics and components in the industry, yet is still designed to be fully weatherproof and durable.

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At less than a kilo all in, it's hard to find fault with the weight of the SuperMegaUL 1. Everything packs into a decent compact space too, with the end result fitting into a rear pannier quite happily, or the pouch straps easily onto a rear rack.

The tent pitches inner first, with just two DAC Featherlight NSL poles and some clever clips and eyelets. This mesh inner is completely self-standing and makes an ideal hot weather shelter, giving protection against insects and yet allowing the breeze to pass through. The super-lightweight outer waterproof fly sheet fastens easily and mainly with just tent pegs, rather than actually clipping to the interior. This helps reduce the weight and bulk further too. There's a small porch created by the fly sheet, and mesh pockets in the inner tent to keep things tidy.

Pitching the tent was incredibly quick and easy, taking just five to ten minutes including the outer fly sheet. The poles are joined together, so there's absolutely no confusion at all as to what goes where. There's only one place they CAN go!

As tempting as the inner mesh tent is, I can't imagine it will be used alone that often in UK conditions, but it's the sort of thing that makes European touring that bit more enjoyable. I've spent many a night under canvas in the Mediterranean and roasted. This tent puts paid to that problem. With the outer, though, it's watertight and still fast to put up.

Space inside is ample for one person, even a six-footer, but definitely only one. Even spooning. The porch created by the fly sheet doesn't give much space for storage of luggage or cooking in bad weather, but it's just about big enough for a pair of rear panniers, and the less tall cyclist has space inside the tent too.

The tent was stable and didn't leak, but overall it definitely favours changeable weather rather than persistently bad weather, given the ultra-lightweight nature of the fly sheet, the lack of ventilation options and the way the outer pitches. In fairness, who wants to set off on a week's cycle tour expecting persistent rain and gail force winds? Not I! If you don't have a choice, though, a different and almost certainly heavier tent might be a better option.

Price wise, this is somewhere in the middle of the vast continuum of prices for a one-person tent, but it marks good value given that it's an extremely technical tent, extraordinarily light and very easy to pitch, perfectly tuned for solo adventures. Most tents of a comparable weight and packsize are more expensive than the SuperMegaUL 1. The more likely it is that you're going to travel to warmer climes, the better and better value this tent gets.

Verdict

Light, compact, easy to pitch, roomy for one and excellent for hot conditions – spot on for touring