[Review] The Hubba Tour 2 Tent by MSR

Some of our best adventures come to us when we load up our adventure bikes and hit the road. Most recently, we loaded down our Ural and took Hank with us on an overnight camping trip in the Utah desert. Traveling self-supported off of the motos is a fun venture in it of itself and really makes you wonder how you can fit so much gear in such little panniers.

Perhaps the biggest challenge of adventure motoing is the fact that with motorcycling comes a lot of gear. Not only are we talking camping gear we are also wearing protective gear and helmets. While the Elixir 3 tent took very good care of us on our moto trip to Baja, we were extremely excited to try out the Hubba Tour 2 Tent by MSR.

While it’s hard to say a negative thing about the Elixir 3 tent because it has literally kept us safe and dry for thousands of miles, the only way we were able to fit our moto gear in that tent with us was because it was a 3-person tent. With the Hubba Tour 2, we now have essentially a garage to house our moto gear while we sleep inside the sleeping quarters of the tent. It’s so nice to have the extra protected space, especially for those wet and stormy days.

The Hubba Tour 2 is easy to set up and feels very minimalistic and simple with only have two poles. The Tour 2 is different from the Elixir in many ways but the most significant difference being the fact that the rainfly and body of the tent are integrated. We aren’t sure we are in love with this, as the tent feels a little window/viewless but it has protected us in a mad snow/sleet/rain storm and so we are confident that it will protect us in any inclement weather. If you’re like us and you feel more “protected” (from anything like night creatures, people, animals) sleeping with the rain fly on even when you know it’s not going to rain, this shouldn’t be an issue for you. If you like a tent that is 90% screen material so you can feel like you’re sleeping outside but still be slightly protected from bugs etc, this may not be the tent for you. We do like to sleep without a rainfly occasionally but feel as though the extra gear storage is more beneficial to us than sleeping without a fly.

If you do happen to find yourself in an extreme downpour, this tent will absolutely keep you dry (same with our Elixir 3). That is a huge bonus for us because no matter where we are camping there is usually a good chance for rain. We even woke up to wet heavy snow in the Hubba Tour 2 and we were not fazed by it.

We love having a place to store our gear, especially when we are camping off the motos and have a more than usual abundant amount of gear. We’ve even thought about turning the garage into Hank’s little room so that he’s not pushing us off of our mats all night. As you can see with the photo of Tyson in the gear shed for reference, there is potentially room in there if you are confined to the tent. He is 6’0 and was able to sit in our camp chair inside the shed. This is not a place I would choose to just hang but if it was absolutely necessary, you could.

There are a few things that surprised and maybe even confused us a bit about the gear shed on this tent. First of all, it’s really hard to get into the tent from the gear shed. I know I’m a really inflexible person but I just could not figure out a way to get into the tent without kneeling in the sand and dirt and crawling through it to get in. That brings me to my next point, there is a partial floor in the shed which is great to put gear on to keep it protected. However, it is really hard to keep the floor clean because getting in and out of the tent seems to send dirt careening everywhere. Also, if you are in a rain storm, the gear shed could potentially flood out as it is partially dirt/ground and partially floor. There could easily be a streaming river out your door the morning you wake up after a heavy rain. When the shed folds up, it is also very hard to keep it clean. We’ve found that dirt/sand will get on the roof of the shed and then the next time you set it up, when you go to get into the shed and hit the roof with your back, all of the dirt comes down on you! This isn’t a huge deal, but definitely worth mentioning. It is nice that there is a door on both sides of the tent so you can access the body through one side and the gear shed on the other. Ideally, in my mind, the floor would span the entire length of the shed and it would be 100% enclosed. I’m not sure what this would mean for the setup/design and would also likely call for some durable material as it would see a lot of wear as a floor.

Moving on, it was surprisingly hard for us to move from a 3-person to a 2-person tent. Even with the gear shed, it was hard to get used to not having any extra space in the sleeping area. We do feel kind of tight in the sleeping area but this is just because we are not used to it. We can be a bit excessive sometimes and so I think if we were to do it over we would opt for the Hubba Tour 3 and feel a little less cramped (especially for those longer trips where some days you get absolutely confined to the tent). There are also a few things that I always like to have inside the tent next to me like valuables and the camera bag.

Something that is definitely worth raving about is the Hubba Tour stuff sack. In fact, I don’t want to even call it a stuff sack because there is no “stuffing” required! It is seriously one of the easiest tents that we’ve ever had to pack up because you simply roll up the tent then place it in the bag which has more of a roll top lengthwise lid that is secured with two adjustable straps (see the video for complete understanding). It’s funny how such little details make such big impacts but it is nice to not have to wrestle your tent into it’s bag.

Whether you are traveling by bike or moto, or maybe you are just car camping with the fam and want to have a place to let your doggo sleep somewhere semi-protected, the Hubba Tour Tent will protect you and your gear no matter what conditions you find yourself in. If you’re stubborn like us and rely on camping no matter what the weather decides to do, have yourself some extra space for those days where you’re not leaving the tent. While we would love the extra space of the 3-person tent (bear in mind that we are absolutely not light packers), MSR offers a 1-person, 2-person, and 3-person version of the Hubba Tour. We know that with MSR Gear we are getting reliable gear that won’t fail us when we need it the most, will keep us dry, and will hold up to abuse of the elements. We’ve had our Elixir 3 tent for almost 4 years and while we take good care of it (store it dry, clean it after every use, don’t walk all over it etc.), it still looks and functions like new. We will continue to trust MSR on all of our camping adventures whether we are in a different country, our own backyard, or deep in the backcountry.

If you’re planning on buying the Hubba Tour 2, we ask that you use this link as we get a small kickback from your purchase: https://amzn.to/2lzbCLH