Sea to Summit Telos TR2

We don't stock this shelter and haven't slept in it. What we hold is the measurements its maker published, and the one question those answer that a spec sheet never does.

Sea to Summit Telos TR2 — shelter drawn to scale. Inner floor 214.6 by 134.6 cm. Packed poles 40 cm: fits across a 40 cm drop bar.
Sea to Summit Telos TR2, drawn from the maker's published figures. Inner floor 214.6 × 134.6 cm, with a 183 cm sleeper drawn in for scale. The packed poles are 40 cm.

Will it go on your bars?

The folded pole set is 400mm, the 20th shortest of the 29 shelters we hold a pole length for. At 1483g it is 31st lightest of 37.

On drop bars
400mm poles — too long for drop bars

Beyond the usable span on drop bars. Carry it on the frame, in a seat pack, or strapped to a fork cage instead.

On flat bars
400mm poles — fits flat bars

Comfortably inside the usable span on flat bars, with room for cables and a harness.

A pole set clears drop bars under 350mm and is marginal to 380mm; on flat bars those figures are 450mm and 500mm. Those are usable span between the hoods, not measured bar width. Check the clear run on your own bike before committing — hoods, cables and light mounts all eat into it.

What will it pack into?

Sea to Summit gives the packed size as 5.1 x 18.9 in / 13 x 48 cm, which read as a stuff sack is 6.4 litres. Of the 55 bags we hold a published capacity for, 28 have room for it on their own and 27 do not.

Volume against volume, which is the honest limit of this: it says the bag is big enough, not that a tent-shaped object goes through its opening. "Spare" is what is left for everything else, and a shelter that only just fits leaves nowhere for a sleeping bag.

What the maker publishes

Folded pole length400mm
Packed size5.1 x 18.9 in / 13 x 48 cm
Minimum weight1483g
Packed weight1664g
Sleeps2
Inner floor214.6 × 134.6 cm

Blank fields stay blank. Where a maker doesn't publish a figure we say so rather than estimating one.

Shorter poles and lighter, same capacity

The only unambiguous comparison: shelters sleeping the same number that pack shorter poles and weigh less. Anything else is a trade rather than a win.

NEMO Hornet OSMO 2P
320mm poles · 948g
Big Agnes Fly Creek HV UL2 Bikepack
305mm poles · 964g
Big Agnes Tiger Wall UL2 Bikepack
305mm poles · 1332g

How this figure is held at all

29 of the 43 shelters we track publish a folded pole length. It is the number that decides handlebar carry and the one most makers leave out, which is why the tent finder filters on it and reports how many shelters it had to exclude for missing it. The shortest set we hold is the Nordisk Lofoten 1 ULW at 220mm.

by Brian Williams · 6 years bikepacking