I had owned my Coleman tent for about five or six years but rarely used it. Whenever I went camping in the car I would always use a Vango 3 person tent because of the space inside and the large porch. When I decided to go camping and carry all my gear on the bike it was only the Coleman which was light enough to carry.
After a couple of weeks in the Hebrides, I decided that age was determining I would need something with a bit more head-room but still light-weight. I researched on-line and eventually decided on the Nordisk Halland.
The Halland is a two person, three season tent and unlike the Coleman it would fit two without them needing to be very intimate. It’s a twin pole design. The colour-coded poles are not a huge difference in size which makes the rear of the tent a bit more spacious. It is 100cm high at the doorway and 85cm under the rear pole.
The tent goes up fly-sheet first, though I tend to leave the inner and outer fastened together when I am away. I find clipping the inner to the fly-sheet can be a bit of a nuisance and the tent goes up much quicker in one. Erecting the tent is fairly straightforward and the guys are positioned to ensure it adjusts easily. The light-weight material of the tent and ground sheet feels flimsy but once it is up and taught it feels strong enough to withstand quite strong winds. Though as I haven’t used it in very windy conditions that’s just an impression. I have used it in heavy rain and it stood up to that well.
The porch is 135cm X 150 cm which I find is sufficient to store my panniers and still giving me room to easily get in and out. There is a single entrance in to the porch. This saves weight but I think it would have been an improvement if there was also an alternative entrance at the other side which could be used depending on the wind direction.
The yellow inner tent gives the interior a light and airy feel. There are a couple of storage pockets along one side which are handy but I find myself wanting a couple more. One of them doubles as a storage bag as a lighter alternative to the supplied compression sack. The shape of this makes it less useful for storing things.
The tent weighs 1580g and the footprint adds an additional 450g approx. This is almost half of that of the Coleman. The pack size is 35 X 14. I have attached the footprint to the outer tent with elastic loops but this does not make much difference to the overall packed size. (I must thank Jon and Frank of Cycletourer website for the idea and instructions on how to do it). I had found that it was awkward to get the footprint lined up with the ground sheet. Having the two attached together makes erecting the tent much easier.
The Halland LW is not cheap. It retails in the UK for between £450 and £700. There is a PU version which seems to be the same tent but heavier, for less. I bought mine used from ebay but would have paid the full price if necessary.
On the whole I am very happy and confident that the Halland is a great improvement on the Coleman and am sure it will give me years of use. I’m not sure if this tent would be the best one for mountaineering but for cycle-touring it is ideal for my needs.
Just Me - On my bike 