Alpkit Soloist XL

My little Alpkit Soloist, its been a little trooper, just under 3 years I have been using this tent for now. It has finally given up though, more on that later. I bought the XL version which is just a little longer being 6ft6 that was a big reason I went for it, and the price I think at the time it was about £135. And they still sell it. Although alpkit if you somehow find your way to reading this please update this tent, its a great tent but give it that side door everyone one wants.

Although this tent does have the small front entrance, i don’t actually find it too annoying, well most of the time. It definitely can be annoying and if you are someone who gets in or lots then yeah it will soon get annoying. I get in once to fall asleep then get out in the morning, and I’m not sat there cooking, which if you like to do it’s probably not the greatest as the porch area is pretty small, I have seen people with the door tied straight out which makes the porch a little more useable especially when wet.

It can be set up in or outer first but as I found out one rainy night, you need the groundsheet to but the outer up first, it doesn’t work without, I bent a pole trying. I have used this in some pretty terrible conditions, and it’s never leaked and always kept me warm and dry, and it is true that this tent can suffer in the wind only cross winds, however I did stand up to storm Bara in wales, that was one loud night and that was a cross wind. You just have to really stake it out correctly, and it seems to handle them cross winds better than you might expect. Putting it up in the wind can be a bit challenging though. To get the best shape i find it best to start out at the back to stake out the single back peg, Then the two front pegs get these nice and tight, and do this with the door zipped shut. Then stake out each side lower stake points first, then the extra guy lines. Then once more for the lower stake points.

I mentioned earlier that the soloist in no more and has given up and that is because I managed to snap one of the poles which in tern ripped the flysheet as I was in the middle of setting it up. I haven’t yet contacted alp kit and not sure if i’m going to, I have beaten this tent for a fair while now and i have since purchased a tapster one after some hassle with the lan shan 1.

I honestly feel like if alpkit just gave this little trooper of a tent a little update, it could be even better, especially good for beginner bike packers that don’t want to spend crazy amounts on light tents. Sure it’s not the lightest about 1.3Kg but it packs down tiny and is a great little tent that does get the job done. If you can put up with the little entrance.