Mountain Hardwear Nimbus UL1 Tent Evaluation

compose Neil Beltchenko
time Might 26, 2023
remark 1

Whereas bikepacking, a tent is your property away from house and a reasonably necessary piece of equipment. For solo bikepackers, the preferred kind of tent is the double-wall one-person tent, which can also be the commonest kind of shelter use throughout different out of doors pursuits. The apparent concerns when selecting a tent are its packability, sturdiness, and the way effectively it may possibly face up to the weather, all whereas being a snug place to be in for a protracted time period. Neil discovered that the Mountain Hardwear Nimbus UL1 Tent ticked all these packing containers. Discover his detailed evaluate right here after which scroll down for a comparability with different double-wall one-person tents.

The tent is 100% nylon with a 30D ripstop flooring that comes up just a few inches on the perimeters, a 15D Silnylon white physique, and a 15D 15d Mesh nylon. The fly of the tent is product of 20D Silnylon and in addition comes with a dual-zipper, single-door design to suit with the physique. Typically talking, Mountain Hardwear maximized their energy the place they wanted it and decreased it the place they didn’t. It is a frequent technique in tent making.

The tent has a footprint of 86″ (218 cm) in size, with a 38″ (96.5 cm) width on the head of the tent and a 28” (71 cm) width on the foot. The tent fly provides a further vestibule area of 28″ (71 cm) from the tent physique that tapers to the nook of the pinnacle of the tent. At 5′ 9.5″ (177cm), I had loads of further room at each the foot and head of my tent. The tent additionally has a top of 38” (96.5 cm) from the bottom to the very best level of the tent, offering sufficient room to take a seat up. That mentioned, in the event you’re a tall one that strikes round rather a lot at evening, you would possibly end up on the prime or the underside of the tent. It’s value noting that you possibly can simply mistake the Nimbus UL1 for the Huge Agnes Fly Creek, as the one actual distinction in dimensions is a bit of further head area on the Fly Creek.

The tent is designed round a three-point wishbone body created from pre-bent DAC featherweight NFL poles that weigh 215 grams and are 38 centimeters lengthy. They arrive with a restore splint in case a pole cracks or breaks. The tent has eight 7-gram stakes that proved to be very sturdy after variety of rock strikes. You can too get a further 40D floor material, however I made a decision towards that as this tent can’t be utilized in fast-fly mode (with simply the fly and floor material), plus floor cloths are more money and weight. Should you ever desire a floor material and wish to avoid wasting cash, simply buy some Tyvek or bug a contractor down the road.

Mountain Hardwear Nimbus UL1 In contrast

The three season, front-entry Nimbus got here in at 2 kilos even (933 grams), together with stuff sacks, poles, stakes, man traces, tent physique, and a fly that’s a bit of soiled. It’s not the lightest tent on the market—as you’ll be able to see within the comparability chart under—nevertheless it holds its personal within the class of semi free-standing, double-wall tents.

The Nimbus 1 additionally is available in at a reasonably first rate value level for a tent of this nature. To place issues in perspective, the Huge Agnes Fly Creek is available in at $370 with a full mesh physique. And the Nemo Hornet Osmo is available in at $400. Dig into the the checklist of one-person double-wall tents with costs, weights, and circulate measurements under.

Arrange

The arrange of this tent is fairly simple. You begin by staking or tying down the 4 corners of the tent and attaching the poles to a few color-coded aluminum pole attachment factors which are part of the physique of the tent. Begin with the entrance as a result of it’s good to loop the 2 poles via some webbing loops, which is likely to be the Nimbus’ most important design flaw. The remainder of the attachments use a G-Hook canopy-to-pole attachment system which Mountain Hardwear says helps compressibility versus the bigger clip system discovered on competing tents. I didn’t thoughts the G-hooks; the system labored effectively and was simple to connect and uninstall, and the tent physique by no means indifferent from the G-hooks unexpectedly. It’s a novel design, which I at all times admire.

Whereas the tent doesn’t must be used with the fly, I discovered myself utilizing the fly more often than not in cooler temps. The fly simply attaches to the three aluminum pole attachment factors and the 2 tent stakes on the foot of the tent, and it tightens with a compression twine in any respect three pole factors. The fly additionally comes with three extra stake attachment factors in the event you want them. On the sides of the fly are two clips to connect to the physique of the tent that stretch out the tent a bit extra for area. The tent fly additionally comes with velcro straps to connect to the tent poles, and whereas I used them, I’m undecided how helpful they are surely. The supplied man traces paired with the fly aren’t totally vital, however I discovered the additional twine to be helpful within the occasion I wanted some further size once I was utilizing rocks as tent anchors.

General, the arrange was easy. Nonetheless, with the nylon fly there’s some stretching that happens with temperature and humidity fluctuations. I discovered that I’d arrange the tent once I acquired to camp, then modify the fly earlier than going to mattress for the evening, simply to make sure it was prepared for any wind or rain within the evening. That is regular and comes with the territory when utilizing a nylon tent.

In use

Packing this factor down was exceptionally simple. It takes no time in any respect, and now and again, I even used the supplied stuff sack, particularly when utilizing the Tailfin AeroPack, because it helped preserve the tent contained for a further 15 grams. However, when utilizing a seat pack or dry bag, I might simply shove it in and compress it down and go away the stuff sack at house.

As for the poles, they aren’t brief like these from some firms adopting shorter bikepacking-specific poles, however I by no means actually discovered this to be annoying, and I feel the longer poles labored in my favor extra in order I usually packed them with the supplied pole bag and strapped them subsequent to my dry bag on a rear rack. However, I may see this being a difficulty if you wish to set up them on a narrower handlebar or if you wish to match them in a framebag that has restricted area. After inspecting the poles, there are not any dents or bends, only a bunch of scrapes and scratches. The tent additionally comes with a small stake bag, which is good to maintain the stakes and further man traces so as.

My time inside

The within of the Mountain Hardwear Nimbus UL1 was cozy however nonetheless provided loads of room for me, whilst a aspect sleeper who strikes round at evening. The Nimbus has two pockets inside: a aspect pocket the place I normally put the stuff sacks for the tent (sleeping pad, and different smaller gadgets that would simply match) and a pocket on the highest of the mesh for different gadgets. I used this now and again, for lighter gadgets, or my head lamp, however I normally put issues in dry luggage within the vestibule to unlock area.

The tent did an excellent job of conserving bugs out, and the mesh exhibits no actual indicators of serious put on in any space. One factor I admire in regards to the added nylon close to the pinnacle is a little bit of wind safety but in addition safety from flying particles resembling sand. It does an honest job of lowering the sand coming into the tent close to my head, versus a tent with a full mesh physique.

The tent endured plenty of wind and rain throughout the testing interval. It survived gusty winds as much as round 30 miles per hour, nonetheless, the foot of the tent is rather less steady in excessive wind as a result of three-point pole body. I wakened in the course of the evening on a latest journey, and it was very windy. I went outdoors to verify my rock stakes have been intact. They have been, however this was a critical check of the Nimbus, which it handed regardless of the aspect of the tent performing as a sail of kinds. All the strengthened seams and anchors held quick; nonetheless, the tent fly now has a touch of orange from Moab sandstone pelting the aspect of it.

As for rain, I needed to sit within the Nimbus for a full night, all evening, and the morning throughout heavy rain in Wisconsin. I even set it up within the rain. The bottom of the tent did a reasonably good job of conserving the moisture out, however a sheet of Tyvek may have saved the ground from getting a bit of damp. One want is that the aspect of the fly could be perhaps an additional foot lengthy, as the present top permits wind to choose up moisture or undesirable sand and deposit it underneath the fly. That mentioned, even when the fly was saturated, there was nonetheless sufficient of a niche between the mesh and the fly to stop water from coming into the mesh.

The Nimbus’ light-weight nylon does an excellent job of drying out, particularly within the desert West. As soon as the solar popped out, any little bit of condensation was gone, and the tent itself by no means actually appeared to construct up an excessive amount of moisture, even throughout chilly nights. However, once more, most of my time testing this tent was within the Western United States, which tends to be much less humid.

• Mannequin Examined: Mountain Hardwear Nimbus UL1 Tent
• Precise Weight: 933 grams
• Worth: $400 at REI
• Producer’s Particulars: MountainHardwear.com