Sea to Summit Alto TR2 Bikepack tent | Tested and reviewed

We’re caught somewhere between absolutely loving the Sea to Summit Alto TR2 Bikepack tent and being mildly disappointed by some of its design touches. It’s a sense of almost being perfect, but not quite – like an opportunity narrowly missed.

Let’s start with the positives. We’d argue the comfort levels of this tent are phenomenal – you get loads of internal real estate, tremendous headroom, ample width for side-by-side sleeping and two good-sized porches. Liveability is excellent with no sense of cramped claustrophobia and you’re highly likely to feel at-home and cosy inside this tent.

It really is a success in terms of the comfort metric. Much of this is achieved thanks to the clever hub-connected pole structure with its innovative “tension ridge” cross pole (more on that later).

The negatives are not a surprise. As with all tents of this dome-style shape and design, such as the MSR Hubba Hubba Bikepack, the generic drawbacks are as follows: inner-first pitching, draughty mesh inner, underwhelming hydrostatic head stats, poor wind resistance, non-flush pitching and an expensive price-tag.

The main feature that we can’t quite decide on, however, is Sea to Summit’s bikepacking storage bag: is it an innovative revelation or an over-engineered complication? The approach will probably polarise opinion. The tent is stored in two separate compact bags.

These are super-strong and durable, made from a 420-denier waterproof dry sack material. You also get four mega-sturdy stretch-loc straps. It’s quite an eye-catching design.

The positives? You don’t need separate bikepacking bags for your tent, the storage bags are reliably waterproof (far more waterproof than many others) and the modular approach with twin bags empowers versatility in terms of on-bike stowage options. Furthermore the burly straps can be secured on various parts of your bike frame with a solid, non-slip grip.

The negatives? The two bags are very heavy – a whopping 446g. This is annoying, as it virtually turns the Alto TR2 Bikepack from a lightweight tent to a heavy one. With the full bag system, it clocks in at 2,155g, which is heavier than you’d ideally want for a £570 investment.

We also didn’t find it that easy to re-pack the tent into the small bags, while the modular design was somewhat redundant for us. Would it not have been easier to just have one handlebar bag?

However, for some bikepackers, this unique design might hit the spot and empower the exact on-bike stowage orientation they desire. Ultimately it’s probably a Marmite-y feature – will you love or hate it?

Either way, it’s fair to say that, putting the storage bag aside, the Alto TR2 is a superb shelter with top-tier comfort and liveability – something you’ll undoubtedly love after a hard day of big miles in the saddle.

Bikepacking Features & On-Bike Stowage

There are two main bikepacking features with this tent. Firstly, compared to the regular Alto TR2 (read our review here), the Alto TR2 Bikepack version has “shorter pole sections to better suit bikepacking needs”, as Sea to Summit puts it. This works well, because the shape and size of the storage bags are clearly fine-tuned for on-bike stowage.

The second – and most striking – bikepacking-specific design touch is the tent’s twin storage bag system. As mentioned above, these bags might prove a tad polarising.

The positives are plentiful. Made from a super-sturdy, thick and robust 420-denier fabric, with eVent waterproofing and a solid rolltop closure, these bags are virtually indestructible. You could throw them in a river or lake, or off the top off a cliff, and they’d be fine.

The modular design, with two separate bags (one storing the inner and pegs, and one storing the poles and flysheet), delivers good versatility too. You can store them separately on different parts of your bike frame, if so desired, creating whatever on-bike stowage orientation suits your needs.

More generally, it’s also quite handy to keep a wet flysheet apart from a dry inner.

The two bags can be clipped together using the hefty stretch-loc straps, which have belt-like buckles and prongs for a bombproof connection. These straps are also used to secure the bags to various parts of your frame and, for this purpose, they work excellently. They deliver a good grip and lock firmly into place.

The negatives, however, are twofold. The bags aren’t the easiest to pack – they are bit fiddly and there’s certainly not much slack. You need to roll the tent components up compactly and precisely to make it all fit. If you’re a bit loose and imprecise, you’ll struggle.

But the bigger drawback is the weight. The two storage bags, with all straps, clock in at a hefty 446g. That’s somewhat crazy for just a carry bag - and for many gram-counting bikepackers will prove a deal-breaker.

Shape, Structure, Pitching & Internal Liveability

The shape and structure of the Sea to Summit Alto TR2 is superb, with impressive spaciousness and excellent headroom – or, in other words, it’s a positively palatial tent with first-rate liveability and top-notch comfort levels. This is its USP. The main reason to buy this tent is for its comfy, roomy interior with near-vertical walls, loads of width and plenty of real estate for gear organisation.

As such, it’s best for bikepackers who spend a lot of time inside their tent, or those who prioritise internal comfort over other factors. If you’re a bikepacker who barely spends any time inside your tent other than sleeping, its allure will perhaps be wasted on you.

Pitching is simple and straight-forward, commonly with an inner first approach (although in poor weather there is a way to pitch it rainfly first). For the usual approach, the main DAC hub-connected pole – which has a double-wishbone shape, with a “Y” at each end, a ridge pole down the spine, and a cross pole in the middle – is first clipped together.

Next lay out the inner flat and then slot the four pole tips into the corresponding four corners of the inner. The inner is then clipped onto the skeletal pole structure in a “suspended” style to create the shelter.

The real genius of this tent is the so-called “tension ridge”, the cross pole which extends and stretches out the shape of the roof. The clever design cantilevers the cross bar upwards above the head end of the tent, angling upwards like a bird’s wingspan to maximise head and shoulder room.

It literally raises the roof, creating ample headroom, steep walls, large doors and plenty of vestibule space.

Once the hub-connected pole and inner are all sorted, you simply need to peg out the inner and then throw over the flysheet, clipping it in place and pegging it out too.

We’re not massive fans of the way the tips of the Tension Ridge clip into the fabric pouches of the outer. It’s rather fiddly to do and doesn’t seem like the best solution for the purpose. But that’s nit-picking really.

The inner area is trapezium shaped, wider at the head end and tapered by 37cm at the foot end, with ample room for two to sleep side-by-side. Once the rainfly is attached, the twin vestibule spaces are pegged out, creating storage areas for wet gear and muddy cycling shoes for each camper.

Sea to Summit says the Alto TR2, with its “revolutionary” Tension Ridge architecture, creates “taller oversized doors and vertical walls that create an unrivalled amount of space”. It’s a confident statement, but one we’d mostly agree with. For internal space and comfort, this tent is difficult to beat at a comparable weight.

Waterproofing, Wind Resistance and Breathability

It’s the usual case of pros and cons with the 3-season rated Alto TR2 Bikepack, when it comes to waterproofing, wind resistance and breathability. Based on our test camps in the Lake District, and our in-depth analysis of the design, shape and specs of the tent, we believe the Alto TR2 will stand up competently to “medium” grade poor weather, but it isn’t the best in atrociously wet conditions.

Similarly wind resistance is ok, but not great. Yet breathability, conversely, is very good and the tent combats condensation very well.

Here is our reasoning for these opinions. The raw waterproofing stats of this tent – a 15-denier ripstop nylon groundsheet with a 1,200mm rating and a 15-denier, silicone and PU-coated, ripstop nylon flysheet with a 1,200mm rating – are a little disappointing, as you usually see with non-European brands (Sea to Summit is an Australian brand).

This in itself doesn’t mean the tent will be leaky. It is still solidly waterproof and there is much more to keeping you dry than simply the hydrostatic head rating.

But, in more extreme conditions, thicker materials with higher hydrostatic head ratings are (probably) more likely to keep the rain out. So there is a slight cause of concern with the raw stats.

On top of this, the tent’s roof has a slightly flat profile at the centre, which may risk water pooling on the surface (although this never happened to us during our tests). Furthermore the flysheet doesn’t peg out completely flush to the ground, so there’s a small vulnerability to water ingress underneath.

To combat some of these flaws, you do get some impressive features. The groundsheet extends 15cm up the walls of the inner in a “bathtub” style, creating a “lip” of waterproof protection. During our tests in light rain, the tent’s steep walls shed rain well, while Sea to Summit also pledges that the silicone and polyether-polyurethane treatments on the rainfly provide “long-lasting waterproof performance”.

All of the tent’s seams are taped too. To extend the life of your tent floor, Sea to Summit recommends the use of a Sea to Summit footprint (sold separately - £50, 261g).

In strong winds, the near-vertical, tall walls of the Alto TR2 are not the best. They do not have a low-to-the-ground, aerodynamic profile and instead have a tendency to “catch” the wind. However, except in very strong gusts (in which you probably shouldn’t be camping anyway), we’ve found the Alto TR2 sufficiently stable, as long as you peg it out firmly using all guylines correctly.

Breathability, however, is very good. You get two Apex vents on the flysheet, as well as that aforementioned gap between the ground and the flysheet, for added air flow and ventilation. Large sections of mesh on the inner further enhance breathability.

This whole approach brings pros and cons: you’re far less vulnerable to condensation and you can cool down easier in hot weather, but the inner can be draughty, which is annoying in colder climes.

Sea to Summit says its Apex vents are positioned at the highest point of the tent to “expel moist air and minimise condensation”. We can’t really analyse how much difference this makes compared to other vent locations, but it certainly seems to work well.

Weight & Packed Size

On our scales, the Sea to Summit Alto TR2 Bikepack tent weighs 2,155g in total, broken down as follows: flysheet (530g), inner (533g),  hub-connected pole (457g), stiffened pole bag (64g), main two-part bag (446g), 10 pegs (80g), peg bag (8g) and spare guylines, repair patches and pole splint (37g).

As mentioned in the introduction, this is slightly heavier than ideal for a two-person backpacking tent. The comparable MSR Hubba Hubba Bikepack weighs 1,677g, for example – a saving of 478g. Most of this saving comes from the carry bag. The MSR bag weighs 219g (including integrated pole bag), whereas the Sea to Summit bags weigh 446g – which seems a little excessive.

If you were to ditch the carry bag and pack the tent in your existing on-bike storage options, the weight of the Alto TR2 would plummet to 1,709g, which seems far more competitive. For some bikepackers, the heavier weight of the Alto TR2 may be a deal-breaker; for others it won’t be a big issue, particularly considering the carry bags are waterproof with strong straps.

This perhaps means you’ll be able to ditch another on-bike bag, such as a frame, cockpit or saddle pack, and thus make weight savings that way. When strapped together, the two waterproof storage bags are sized 34x22cm. This is impressively compact and minimalist, and works well for on-bike stowage.

Features & Sustainability

Sea to Summit only uses premium branded materials in the design, including DAC poles, YKK zippers and 7-series aluminium, so the all-round hardware should be durable and long-lasting. A neat add-on is the way the pole storage tube doubles up as a diffusing “lightbar” when combined with a head torch. This creates a pleasant reading light in the dead of night.

In terms of sustainability, no recycled materials are used and there is nothing in particular to note, except that no PFCs are used. The eco credentials of the tent are not its main selling point.

Sea to Summit’s marketing team explained this to us as follows: “Essentially on really high-end performance products, in this case where lightness and durability are the key, Sea to Summit will use the best materials available - if there is a recycled or eco-friendly material available which fits the bill (i.e is light or durable enough) Sea to Summit will use it - but when performance will be affected this isn't always possible.”

Verdict

The Alto TR2 bikepack is a superb tent notable for its roomy interior, amazing headroom and robust waterproof bikepacking storage bags – but it’s a tad heavy and very expensive.

About the author

James Forrest writes regular features and route guides for Trail and has been one of our main gear testers for the last few years. James is based on the edge of the Lake District so when he isn’t off on his latest crazy adventure or challenge, he’s walking in his local fells.

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