June 19, 2010

Bell tent tortuga ohio

Posted in gear at 11:37 am by teamio

Our new base camp tent will soon be put up to the test. A 5m bell tent from tortuga using 320 g/m2 canvas cotton. We are aiming for a really natural look & feel and for cool shade if it gets warm.

1st impressions are fair. solid metal poles look strong although i will be replacing these with some bamboo eventually. Build quality looks good enough at a glance. It has 4 lower side vents with mozzy nets – you can roll up the outer canvas to let more air in (from outside only). Two high up vents again with the mozzy nets. The netting holes do look a little big for my liking and may let in those pesky midges espeicially in Scotland!

but then the tent isnt completely sealed like modern tents, i do love the ‘dutch lace’ door closure and will be adopting this design for our ‘orks revenge’ project.

Its a big vast space into which a whole load of equipment can be consumed, including several double beds.

Ill get some pics up and review ob our return from north wales in a couple of weeks.

The centre pole reinforcement is a double layer of PVC, time will tell how this holds up to UV, wind & rain. The same PVC forms a skirt around the tent.

Permalink Leave a Comment

October 16, 2009

MTE p7 road test

Posted in gear at 7:43 pm by teamio

ive had time out on the trail to really test these out, completely dark & wet conditions, the flashlight emits a really good spread of light allowing good all round vision perfect for cycling. i still dont know where they get the 900 lumens from, i cant believe they emit that much light. I still use the fenix p2d as a helmet mount and that throws more of a spotlight whch out shines the p7s  on boost mode around 220 lumens i think so i think the 900 is more of a calculated theoretical number.

verdict:

• excellent for night riding recommend 2
• excellent car & home use
• excellent car camping
• poor backpacking too heavy
• reasonable build quality but issues around quality are known
• dubious 900 lumen claim

Permalink Leave a Comment

October 9, 2009

MTE sscP7 900 lumen flashlight

Posted in gear at 1:53 pm by teamio

okay, my first gear review. not exactly lightweight either.

the MTE 900 lumen flashlight is a solid piece of kit 184grams on the scales (inc battery) 1st impressions are fair, well this is a cheapish light (£25) with impressive performance it came with no packaging or instructions, but do you really need them? i mean you turn it on and off. I wasnt sure which way around to put the battery in though and it doesnt tell you which way inside either, which i thought was unusual. anyway i made a good guess and it worked 1st time. the threads on the screw cap for the battery i thought were a bit rough so ive applied a little oil to keep things smooth and to keep the seal from getting damaged.

tech stats:

weight 184 grams

length 6″

battery: 18650 rechargeable li-ion 3.7v (ultrafire 3000mAh)

battery life: over 2hrs full power

modes: on high/off/low beam

so how bright is this light?

well its very bright with a nice spread, out shines my little fenix p2d (but its not a fair comparison as the fenix is about 1/4 size& weight but can be had for around the same price) also when the battery is exhausted it continues in low power mode unlike the fenix which just switches off ( a little disconcerting when used on my bike)

I purchased 2 MTE’s for use on my bike after cycling around corwalls country lanes recently at night using the 2 x fenix p2d just wasnt enough light for fast downhill, in fact it became downright white knuckle cycling. good fun as long as i stayed on!

ive yet to really put these new torches to the full test but my first outing was certainly alot brighter the output of two of these is really impressive, i need to get some more secure bike mounts  as the 2fish lockblocks just arent upto the extra weight of the MTEs with the flashlights wobbling around too much for my liking.

im currently working on a homemade mount for these flashlights, ill get some pics up soon

okay 2 versions of clamp:

1. uses some black metal clamps i had lying around and 1 jubilee clamp, which ive added some heat shrink tube (red). this version is more stable than type 2 but i had only 1 clamp.
2. uses 2 jubilee clamps both of which have heat shrink tube added to protect the bar & torch from scrtached etc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

and from the front

Permalink Leave a Comment