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Hyperlight Mountain Gear Extreme shelters weighing less than beer!
By Mark Carrera #188605
HYPERLITE MOUNTAIN GEAR IS A made-in-America company creating some of the lightest shelters on the planet, but until March of 2015 it was an unknown in the ADV-Moto com- munity. Their company mission is simple: “We’re about stripped down high-performance gear” and at only four years old, the Hyperlite is a rela- tively new manufacturer in the world of mountaineering and even newer to the motorrad community. Over the summer of 2015, I had the pleasure of testing two excellent products from the HMG line as emergency bivouac shel- ters. I tested the 8’x10’ Cuben Fiber Flat Tarp and the UltaMid-2 Insert (the U2-I is one-half of an out- standing shelter system). I chose these products spe- cifically for ADV bivvy ses- sions. To their credit, the Hyperlite Mountain Gear’s “gurus of lightweight” allowed the separation of their UltaMid 2 Insert from its fly system as an experi- ment for the ADV bivvy kit buildout; I appreciated their acceptance of my unconven- tional application. Keep in mind as you read this review that the shelters and systems are targeted at minimal- ist mountaineers. These unique adventurers have a laser focus on weight-saving initiatives such as sawed off toothbrushes and split up, worn copies of War and Peace. How- ever, I was looking beyond the gorp- stuffed trail-rats skittering on scree at the base of Yosemite’s Half Dome; I was looking at shaving critical weight
30 BMW OWNERS NEWS February 2016
off of my BMW F 800’s ADV emergency kit. Consequently, the “Cuben Fiber” ADV- Moto bivvy-kit I created more than met my expectations for weight reduction without compromising performance. So, what the heck is Cuben Fiber? Cuben
Fiber, as Hyperlite Mountain Gear puts it, is “…high-performance, non-woven, rip- stop, composite laminate developed in the 1990s by a nuclear weapons physicist and an aerospace
composite engineer…50-70% The 8’x10’ Flat Tarp is excellent for hun-
kering down in during an emergency bivvy, awaiting the cavalry to rescue downed GS pilots (or pilots in need a dry place to rest up, chew some Skittles and catch up on withered sections of War and Peace). With five anchor points across each long edge and four on the short edge that are triple stitched and thematically welded, nothing short of a hurricane force wind will pull this tarp apart. In fact, sailboat racers incorpo- rate Cuben fiber into their sail- arsenal specifically for its durability. One of
the unique aspects of
pitching the tarp as a shelter is the pole system because it does not have any unless you want them! Hyperlite Mountain Gear shelters use nearly any type of support: a few straight sticks collected around camp, a guideline strung between bike and tree, or featherweight hik- ing poles. As a general Flat Tarp set up, the standard-two-pole A-frame setup provides the most usable space but takes a bit longer to set up. My favorite configuration was a long-edge lean-to configuration using the left handguard of my parked F 800 GS. Using the F 800’s left handguard
lighter than Kevlar, four times stronger than Kevlar, and allows flex without losing strength.” As an example, the 8’x10’ Flat Tarp tested for this review weighs a feathery 11.4 oz., with the custom Spectra™ guylines included. In contrast, my old bivvy kit was an MSR single person tent weighing about 3.5 lbs. The extremely light weight and strength qualities of the Cuben Fiber prod- ucts helps to trim excess weight from my ADV bivvy kit; an F 800 GS with hard-pan- niers, extra fuel, and support gear for over- land adventuring can exceed 600 lbs.!
as the center point allows the bike to act as a partial weather barrier to the entrance of the shelter, but make sure the side-stand is on a very firm ground or a parking-plate; having a GS bike fall on you whilst asleep is an unhappy and dangerous event. On an extremely windy day, this setup also creates a critical wind-weather barrier, but some rain will get past the bike of course. The liv- ing space is roomy enough to get a good night’s sleep in moderate weather and a ref- uge in extreme weather. Remember, this is a bivvy kit and not a camping solution.
member tested
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