Having recently packed out about 400 pounds of elk, there's nothing I won't do to make my pack weight the lowest it can go without putting me in danger—thank you, Life Straw. But even before my nine and a half hour packout hell, I was always a fan of going as light as possible, especially when I was camping from the back of a motorcycle.
Even when you have great panniers, any additional weight on an adventure or enduro machine can mean a top-heavy, unstable experience. Something you most definitely don't want when you're 40 miles into the backcountry and the only folks around to help are a bunch of hungry grizzly bears. They don't have thumbs!
And one of the heaviest pieces of kit in anyone's backcountry camping pack is traditionally their tent, as you have a bunch of fabric, poles, and stakes that just pack on the pounds. While there's been some great advances in the area recently, thanks to hunters and ultralight backpackers—stay tuned, I'm using a Stone Glacier ultralight tent for an upcoming adventure on the back of a bike—there hasn't been one specifically designed with the motorcyclist in mind. That's still true with Aper's Apex1 ultralight tent, as it was designed for bicyclists.
That doesn't mean it can't work for motorcyclists, though.
Aper's Apex1 is a 1.6-pound one-person tent that utilizes a bicycle's frame as one of its main tie-downs, using a guyline to attach to the bicycle's handlebar to keep the tent upright and roomy. But what is a motorcycle if not just a heavier, taller, more rugged bicycle? Yet, it's that weight that has me so intrigued, as most other one-person tents are still pretty heavy, and even the Stone Glacier that I've got right now uses my hunting trekking poles as its main system of support. And adding those make the system heavier if you're not just backcountry hunting or hiking.
This Apex1, however, is ready to go whenever the mood strikes you to plant stakes and camp out for the night when you're off on some far-flung moto adventure on the back of the new Ducati Multistrada V4 Rally ala 'Long Way Round." And that's perfect.
According to our friends at New Atlas, "Parked upright beside the tent, it's connected to a tensioning cord that runs from the fly to [the bike's] handlebars, then from its bars down to a peg in the ground. This arrangement reportedly gives the Apex1 30% more interior space than it would have otherwise, for a total of 2 cubic meters. Setting the tent up is claimed to take less than five minutes. And should you be wondering, a strap cinched around one of the bike's brake levers acts as a parking brake."
The full tent itself consists of a ripstop nylon double-walled silicone-coated fly, i.e. the tent structure, a 40-Denier groundsheet, a mesh interior tent, a main carbon fiber rod for support, and the cords and stakes. And again, it weighs under two pounds, which when you're traveling off grid means more space for food, water, or other niceties. Or, if you're like me, more space for Uncrustables.
As for price and availability, Aper is still taking backers on Kickstarter, though the company has already reached its stated goal. Pricing for those who got in early will be around $526, though once it hits production for everyone else, that'll shoot up to $701. Expensive, yes, but for those who want to pack light or carry more important things, you're not far off other ultralight tents in the market. Plus, this one works with your motorcycle.
