Just comparing the schematics to tents I've slept in, one possible criticism? There is only 7 inch to the side of a typical 7" mat so not much space inside the inner? Like the proportion of porch vs inner is a tad too much towards the porch and not enough to the inner? A few inch wider would help. I know Franco has made some videos but its not clear to me can you make it wider than 34"?

See the relavent video on the Notch here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=SIt1Oezq2GQ#t=658s

Relative to my Laser Comp (an imperfect tent but one I can extrapolate from) it has 37" at its widest point and I know inside I use all that width putting my bike pannier at the widest place. The Notch's widest point is 34". I'd consider the Laser Comp as narrow an inner as you'd want and still keep a reasonably tidy inner org.

I'd not want to put stuff at the foot/head end and risk blocking the vent? (but with a solid inner there's nothing to block).

Assumption is slugs crawl all over anything in the porch particularly when its wet.

Edited by nigelhealy on 02/22/2012 23:28:35 MST.

Nigel,

Everything is a tradeoff and there's no such thing as a perfect shelter. Not to be rude but the Notch is what it is and it's probably not the right shelter for you.

-H

The sleeping area isn't narrow for me and I am 6'1" and 215 with wide shoulders. Is it huge? No. Similar at the ends to say, an MSR Hubba, but very quickly noticeably wider. I do not touch the sides (note: the bathtub floor is nicely tall). Without the inner, it would easily sleep two - remember that there are two vestibules here with the inner in place. Also remember it weighs 24oz on my scale without pegs. With pegs it is 26oz on the nose.

I was asking a question. Can the poles be pulled further out and make the inner wider? The high bathtub would allow such, also with the solid inner option? If using shorter poles would it work? I guess to a degree, yes, but if the poles move too far off vertical they risk sliding and tent collapse, so what is realistic? I'm only talking a few inches.

Franco, not sure which tent it was, showed moving the pole further in if required to make the porch larger, and also shows say on the Contrail pushing the pole quite to one side, so the same question on the Notch, widening the distance between pools at the ground level, lowering the top slightly so the sides have the give to move wider, spreading the bathtub wider, how far does this still work still as a stable shelter?

Might end up the right shelter for me :)

Nigel
You need to send me that bike so that I can take pics of it with it inside.
I passed a guy on one of them a few days ago, he had large paniers too and was comfortably doing 20KMPH .
(mind you , I do about 15 km at a time, he was obviously touring...)
Kind of odd me laying on the ground and him perched on top of that...
Anyway I understand what you are asking and will test that soon
Franco

added
Which bike..
Oh dear, you have a problem...
still waiting for my morning coffee and the sun to come around.
Franco

Edited by Franco on 02/23/2012 15:54:38 MST.

Which bike. The one which would be tugging a Notch has the rack, which could fit easily a Scarp2 if I wanted.

http://i334.photobucket.com/albums/m421/NigelHealy/Brompton/IMG_0533.jpg

Edited by nigelhealy on 02/23/2012 15:45:55 MST.

Nigel - the bathtub floor attaches to the bottom of the trekking poles to 'pull out' the inner floor. You could angle the poles inward but you would severely limit space within the inner tent. Pulling them out wider won't increase the width of the inner appreciably because of the aforementioned attachements, at least from the perspective of maximizing the height of the bathtub walls.

for Nigel only)
OK , I have taken some pics...
First this is what it looks like in standard mode,72x20 mat :


your bike and panniers will fit on the other side.
Now, if you must..., you can forsake bathtub protection in the center (the bit furthest away from the fly ) and gain an extra 3" (so to 37") by dropping the inner a bit (use loops to extend the net to clip distance and by adding a loop to the widest point of the floor on one side so that with a peg in there it will stay out.
(I used a weight on top to simulate that.)
And this is what it looks like open and shut...



Franco
from Tarptent Downunder

Or maybe buy a Tarptent Stratosphire 1?

Wow Franco thankyou for putting the effort in to try and the photos. I'm not sure if the right picture matches the words but I think I understand. The first picture where you have it pulled somewhat and still the bathtub quite high looks a quite workable solution for many who want to have some gear inside the inner. The subsequent photo with the bathtub practically to the ground looks a bit too far to be a workable system, and I suspect will just accelerate tent wear.

Also the Notch, as I'm only a little taller than you Franco, has a lot of room at the ends which probably is the best answer but having a bit more room at the side too like you show is probably sufficient for most people with similar wish to have more gear inside the inner. I compare my height, my pannier size, and the schematics and I think putting a pannier at head or foot will be the likely best option. The pannier at its widest point is 18" wide - the Notch is 20" at the end so that fits, the pannier's height is 13" and the Notch straight up from where the floor slopes up is 19" tall so there's plenty of height, and the depth, the encroachment into the sleeping area is about 11" so leaving about 73" (108-12-12-11=73) left to sleep in. I'm about 68" so 5" left. So it all works out in the length. Apart from tall people, that is likely what most people will do but to have items overnight close to hand I think also many will stretch the width as you show.

Yes, I was also thinking about SS1. I also looked the Contrail which has a lot of room and is more summer tent. The Notch though has small packed size and to a cyclist that = smaller pannier = more aerodynamic. I'm aspiring to fitting all in 16L which would be incredible. Cyclists less bothered about weight. Backpackers more bothered about weight. Generally, smaller = lighter so very common interests.

So my sleeping mat, I ordered as they were cheap, a Neoair Short which is 47" so to get to 68" just needs a bit of foam like sitmats.

As to packed size, the Notch's volume is 41x9cm = 2.6L. Neoair Small = 1.5L. Stove (Jetboil Sol Ti) = 1.3L, my sleeping bag (PHD Minim 300) is about 5L, so my shelter, sleeping and cooking is 10.4L

Don't be modest Henry... this tent is perfect! It isn't a gigantic tent by design. If you want room to roam get the Rainbow but the Notch is the perfect design for my needs.

I see the Notch solid inner option is now on the TT's website for ordering.

Has anyone got one yet (with the part-sold inner) and if any real-life testing?

I had not enough patience to wait for real springtime, so the morning after my first night in Notch was
like that.
At night, it was about -10C or a bit lower. Snow was about 30 cm (1 foot) deep, so I had a bit of digging using my CCF seat-pad (yellow thingy) as a shovel.
On the third (last) night there was about of 1 m (3-4 feet) of snow, and my 'shovel' was not up to the task. So I just had compacted the snow with my feet and used twigs instead of stakes. Here is a picture of the third morning.

Edited by ssv310 on 03/19/2012 02:50:23 MDT.

My solid inner is on its way, will arrive on tomorrow.

that is a very good looking tent henry/franco...

Larry please do post on your experiences with the solid inner.

Has anyone pitched in strong winds yet? The steepness of the angle at porch and the resulting upwards force on the peg there is something, on paper, which worries me. I know there are guys from the top of the poles to keep the tent on the ground but will the porch stay in place?

I own one tent, a Tera Nova Laser Competition, about 1Kg. Its two main problems are flappiness from the long unsupported flysheet between the central pols and the ends towards the sides (how can you tension a curve? You can't!), and complete lack of fly ventilation at the roofline (combined with shallow angle of the fly is a condensation issue the solid inner mostly solves). The tent though has never failed. I'm currently considering two options, one is to consider the Notch as warmer-weather tent only and keep my TN LC for colder weather, and so really allow the inner to be mesh (its original design), or to consider it for all year and sell my TN LC and then either go with a Notch only with solid inner or with both solid and mesh inners.

My sleeping bag system, I extended it recently down to -20C but with a bag weight increase to 1.4Kg.

A fully solid inner is of more interest than the partially solid that has been selected. The more solid the greater the temp delta from outside and so the lighter the sleeping bag or the lower the temps for a given pack weight.

I don't need to make any decision til June so looking at user reviews. I have a little concern with the inner being too narrow and a SS1 fallback but SS1 doesn't offer any solid inner so less of an option in colder conditions.

Hi Nigel,

The SS1 will have a solid inner much the same as the Notch as an extra.

Cheers,

Stephen

p.s. I have ordered an SS1 myself.

Stephen thanks for that, I'd missed that news!

SS1 is much less of a compromise on space and not a whole lot more weight or cost. I know many are interested in the Notch to minimize pitch footprint space for confined areas but I've never had that problem. This was my tent BEFORE my TN LC

http://i334.photobucket.com/albums/m421/NigelHealy/Brompton/Lakes%20March%2008/DSC00244.jpg
with vast space
http://i334.photobucket.com/albums/m421/NigelHealy/Brompton/Lakes%20March%2008/DSC00249.jpg

I then had an epiphany and realized I wanted to go lightweight and into colder temps and I'm still on that journey. My foot has a problem which is tending to keep my hiking to short and not carrying camping so its been mostly bike-camping (for which you can carry a huge tent if you want), but I'm thinking that is footwear cause so trying some different shoes out and hope to get back to backpacking light by autumn. So no hurry to buy a Notch at the moment.

Hi Nigel,

Thats a shame about your foot, hope it works out ok.

The Ss1 arrived today and its very nice, there is absolutley loads of space.

I will be trying it out this weekend on my first US trip.

Cheers,

Stephen

In case a trekking pole is broken or lost in a creek crossing on a long solo hike, is it feasible to set up Notch with only one pole?