Redverz Series II Expedition Tent Reviews

You've most definitely seen these tents at various rides.  You may have heard it jokingly referred to as a "GS Condo" or "Garage-mahal."  What I do know for sure is that this is the real deal, ORIGINAL and as far as I'm concerned the ONLY motorcycle tent you should own.

Redverz is a small Colorado company owned and run by Kevin Muggleton and his wife, Christine.  The story as I understand it stems from Kevin's 20+ years traveling the world by motorcycle and struggling with various problems along the way.  Once while filming for National Geographic, he awoke to find his gear stolen!  "If only I had a place to securely stow my bike and gear out of prying eyes" he thought.  Another trip in the Andes he awoke multiple times hearing rustling around his bike outside and peering out wondering who was messing with it.  Another trip in the Sahara found him with a busted sump plate and wishing he had a shelter out of the wind and sand to reset the sump plate.

Kevin was also a two-time Dakar participant.  At last year's (2014) Dakar, Kevin won a sportsmanship award for helping out a fellow rider.  This guy came in half passed out and completely de-motivated.  Kevin (who was out due to a wheel problem) bucked this guy up, helped him get his stuff together and back out on the course.  That's some serious cred there.

Many people just don't get it though.  They laugh at some "BMW" rider who needs to keep his garage queen inside a tent.  That's not really what's great about the tent.  Yeah, I do like to put the bike inside sometimes if I'm going to be away from the tent for a while.  But I also like that I can stand up while changing my clothes and have a HUGE area to do lots of things.  At our Death Valley event recently, it served as our kitchen as I heated up the chili and doled out beers from inside the tent bay.  When it rains this tent will also be the most popular in the campground as you can seat quite a few people inside and be out of the rain.  I really appreciated it on another trip in Death Valley where we had 40+ mph winds and it provided perfect shelter to cook meals and eat out of the wind.

I originally purchased this tent almost four years ago and it's still going strong!  I can't even count how many times I've used it.  I did get a bit impatient once with the zipper and jacked it up.  I could have easily gotten it fixed but ended up buying another shell (Series II) because it was about as expensive as shipping and repair was.  It packs pretty small too; about 9" x 21" and 13 lbs.

It fits two pretty well.  I mostly use it solo but have used it with two on a few occasions.

I would strongly recommend getting yourself some longer and stronger stakes though.  The aluminum ones that come with it are light and work well in a softer dirt or grass surface, but I find these rocky desert places and where there's a lot of wind and rain a good idea to use the beefier stakes.  Get the footprint too.  It protects the bottom of the sleeping area as well as is nice to step out onto instead of the dirty/rocky ground.  Use all your guy lines as this is a higher profile tent that needs to be tied down in the wind.  Always try to set up the tent with the smaller end into the wind for that reason.

My older version has these "windows" inside the sleeping area I can't really figure out, but I think they're for ventilation and to keep condensation from building up.  The series II does come with vents as a new feature, as well as a dual door for the sleeping area rather than just the single zipper door on the older model.

Set up and take down is really very quick and easy.  There's a video on his site you can see him put it up pretty quickly.  I just put in the three poles and then stake one end, pull it taught and then tie it down.