I'm Curious as to what type of tents are the most popular? I sell Tents and would like to know what you look for in a tent.
Thank you for your help.
I think your market research would be easier and the information much more valuable if you simply looked at the inventories of other bicycle touring companies. simply searching this forum will reveal there are no fewer than 20 different tents from 8 manufacturers recommended or favored among the regular participants. That's impossible for a small business to maintain or even to provide drop shipment service for that many different mfrs. Among those 20 tents there are no clear favorites nor are there any particular common traits except the satisfaction of the users.
Lightweight? No necessarily.
Free standing or stake out? Both.
Large or small? Yes.
Big vestibule? On some.
Single wall or fly? Both but favoring double walls; gets tricky when one considers weight or staked out.
Bompproof? Not really, too heavy and most of us don't tour in winter.
Net/mesh or nylon walls? Yes to both.
Mfr? North Face, Kelty, REI, big Agnes, Sierra Designs, Mountain Hardware, Coleman, Eureka, Moss, MSR, and some imports and obscure house brands and the range further includes tarps and bivvys.
The last two tents I purchased were fifteen years apart and based only on price and opportunity. I didn't need either new tent but both times I happened to be in a store where the tents were on deep-deep-deep discount. Each was readily adaptable to bicycle travel (I only do supported tours, I'm all done carrying my own stuff) but bike touring was never the primary consideration in either decision: price.