Big Agnes is the Colorado-based company that wants to improve your camping adventures. While they have a plethora of lightweight tents, sleeping bags, camp furniture, and other goodies – we’re checking out two new bikepacking-specific tents. Called the Fly Creek HV UL1/UL2 Bikepack and Copper Spur HV UL1/UL2 Bikepack, they feature improvements such as shorter pole segments to fit on a frame, handlebars or in panniers much better than traditional lightweight tents.
Big Agnes Copper Spur HV UL1/UL2 BikepackTwo-Door Bikepacking Tent
Ultra light tents aren’t new to Big Agnes, but the latest versions feature important updates. The Copper Spur is their or two-person, three-season tent that will run you $469.95.
The larger UL2 (two person) tent adds a second door so you can exit on either side of the tent.
With a trail weight of just 3 lbs and 6″ x 12″ dimensions, it keeps your bikepacking load light. Big Agnes is also big on headroom, with surprisingly generous vertical space to sit up inside the tent.
There is also a smaller Copper Spur HV UL1 Bikepack tent that eliminates the second door for a single person design.
The tent is a little heavier than the Fly Creek HV UL1, but it offers potentially easier entry from the side door instead of the door at the end.
Both new tents come with updated pole 12″ pole segments, called the Shortstik Poleset. They fit into a compression stuff sack with daisy-chain webbing system to fit multiple locations such as handlebars, panniers, or fork legs.
Big Agnes Fly Creek HV UL1/UL2 Bikepack One-Door Bikepacking Tent
The Fly Creek is a single door tent, with lighter overall weight and a slightly smaller footprint. The price is also lower, at $379.95 for the UL2 (two person) or $359.95 for the UL1 (one person).
Weight of the Fly Creek HV UL2 is 2 lbs, 2 oz trail-ready with a packed size of 5.5″ x 12.5″.
The Fly Creek HV UL1 Bikepack is the smallest and lightest of the bunch with a trail weight possible under 2 pounds and room for a single human.
Like its bigger brother, the Fly Creek has a variety of internal and external pockets and straps to hold your gear.
Both the Fly Creek and Copper Spur tents include a silicone-treated ripstop nylon rainfly, while a new extended-size footprint is sold separately. Big Agnes just signed an agreement with popular wholesaler, Quality Bicycle Products – meaning that your local bike shop can stock and sell these tents as long as they do business with QBP. They’ll be available in March in-store and online at the link below.
any idea if the new poles are compatible with older/existing tents?
We’ve asked this exact question and are waiting for a response – We’ll update as soon as we hear back!
Thanks a ton! I love the Fly Creek but the poles are hard for me (short) to find a “good” place for. These would be great.
So it’s apparently a question that has come up a few times for Big Agnes, but as of right now they don’t have any plans to sell the poles separately. Perhaps if enough people request it, it might happen in the future.
I asked BA the same question about 6 months ago. I got the same response. “No plans yet, we’ll put it to the developers, if enough people ask we might consider it.” I love my CS HV UL1 but the pole length is annoying. I’ve bought and sold a few great tents that simply didn’t work because of the pole length. We should keep putting the question to them.
I’d love to see the poles available aftermarket.
I asked the question more recently, and the answer was no. The rep claimed that the design between the bikepacking version and the normal versions of these tents has enough differences that the poles aren’t interchangeable.
The offered to let me send in my Copper Spur for value assessment so that I could exchange it for the bikepacking version.
The article should be updated. The names of the new models are:
Fly Creek HV UL1 Bikepack
Copper Spur HV UL1 Bikepack
Copper Spur HV UL2 Bikepack
with the word “Bikepack” on the end.
Thanks, updated.
Damn…I just bought a Copper Spur last year. Great tent, but wish I’d known this version was coming. Those shorter poles would be nice.
How are people attaching it to the handlebars?