A Bikepacker's Dream Home

NatureHike Opalus 4P Tent - A lightweight, roomy option for bikepacking.

Review by Andrea Purnomo

If I told you, you could have a spacious tent to sleep in, store your bikes, AND is light to carry, you’d probably say I’m dreaming because that’s hard to find.

Well, wake up because this is not a dream, and this tent is what bikepacking dreams are made of.

Testing ground: The Canberra Centenary Trail. 178kms. 5-day cycle, 2-nights camping

Dimensions: 240 x 245 x 120 cm
​Weight: 3.9 Kilograms
Tent Fly: 40D rip-stop silicone coated nylon (4000mm waterproof)
Inner Tent: 70D rip-stop Nylon & High density B3 mesh
Tent Poles: 7001 aluminum alloy

​Price: $330

​Straight away, we were in love. The Opulas honestly makes you feel unworthy of its luxury, because you just don't feel like you're roughing-it-out when you should be... I suppose noone has to know.

Ready, set, sleep
Setting up is quick and stress-free. Pin the mat down, pin the tent down, set the poles, feed them through (colour coordinated), pull them up, extend them out, stretch and pin the front down, secure the gyro ropes down and voila. 
No messing around with a seperate outershell here.

There's 4 vents secured by velcro closures, make sure you open them up before hitting the hay to prevent condensation.

CON: It doesn't come with extra pegs and we've read multi reviews of people easily breaking theirs, so we've taken the good quality pegs from our other tents and used them on the trip. So far we haven't broken any of the orginal pegs.  

NOTE: This tent needs to be pegged into the ground so make sure you know the terrain you'll be camping in.

The vesti is your bestie
The vestibule is massive in the 4 person tent, that we were able to fit a small and medium frame bike in. It was the main selling point for us and it DID NOT dissapoint. The medium frame bike had Chino's crate attached making it bigger than usual - we just had to remove the front wheel to fit both bikes in.

There's two side entrances to the vestibule making the tent feel spacious when kept open. It gives you extra space to hang out if it's raining, and an area to cook undercover if needed. It also provides a place for Chino to do her business or chill if she doesn't want to hang out in the main cabin.

Would have loved if the main cabin came with a double zip fly screen for more ventilation, and extra hooks to place lights.  

Size matters
All of this packs into a small lightweight bag at only 3.9kgs! We even split up the tent between Mik and I to make it lighter. Mik carried the tent fly and inner tent, while I had the tent mat, gyro ropes, pegs and poles.

We both agreed at how light and easy the tent is to pack away, store and bikepack with.

In the elements 
It's classed as a four season tent. 

We camped in rainy conditions and we didn't get wet, thanks to the 4000mm waterproofing. We also camped in hot conditions (to up 30 degree days) and we weren't uncomfortable, thanks to the B3 mesh and vents. 

It wasn't windy and we definately didn't get snow (it was summer), so we didn't get to test out how it fairs in thoes conditions. ​

OVERALL
A big tent in a small package? Yes please! It's unbelieve how big and spacious the tent is when you upack it. We're constantly trying to shed weight where we can when bikepacking, so a big tent at 4kgs is a dream.

The vestibule is another winner. We were about to store two bikes in the vestibule (1 small frame and 1 medium frame with a crate) and still had room to cook and chill out in the vestibule area. It gave us peace of mind knowing the bikes were out of sight and packed away in the tent with us.

Priced at $330 from Amazon, the 4 person tent is obviously dearer than the 2-and 3-person option, but the space and verstibule space makes it worth every dollar. We had weight, comfort and packing 2 bikes away in mind.

A goodnight's sleep while bikepacking is important - we can honestly say this tent gave us the shelter and comfort we needed at the end of each day. I was excited to set up home for the night.   ​

We're giving this a solid

4.8 out of 5