Even if you’re not a Revolutionary War officer or an early 20th-century African safari-goer, canvas tents are great for camping. I’ll admit, I thought canvas tents were anachronistic before researching this article (if that wasn’t already clear). Turns out, the best canvas tents have their advantages. No, they’re not lightweight, but they do retain ambient temperature, filter sunlight, and endure the elements well. And yes, they are waterproof.

Say you’re camping with your family (or your regiment of 247 brave musketeers and a marching piccolo player). If you want to do an extended stay in one spot, quality canvas tents can feel a lot homier than synthetic ones. Natural fabrics with natural colors will always be more soothing than bright-colored synthetics. Some canvas tents even have sturdier structures or solid floors. Such features facilitate glamping to the max; you can hang a mood-setting lantern inside or even put down a rug! (I’ve done both.)

The best canvas tents give campers the most relaxing experience. If you’re reading this, I’d be willing to bet that’s at least part of your goal. After all, what’s better than enjoying the great outdoors from the cozy security of a sturdy dwelling made of natural fibers?

Without further poetic waxing (and before I convince myself to buy one, quit my job, and move to Walden Pond), here’s the full buyer’s guide.

The Best Canvas Tent

White Dusk Avalon Bell Canvas Tent

The White Duck Avalon bell canvas tent is built to last and deliver high-quality camping comfort. It gives campers options and confidence with a big selection of mesh-protected openings, stove jack, and galvanized steel backbone. All in all, the ten-person bell tent looks prepared for anything.

It looks like White Duck has put careful thought into the tent’s strength and breathability. The door, twelve windows, and four vent openings are all double layered with canvas and lightweight mesh. The structure is breathable and open but also highly reinforced. It uses galvanized poles and White Duck’s proprietary grounding system to absorb shock and withstand heavy weather. This large camping tent also comes with a sewn-in polyurethane groundsheet to keep your feet (or rug or furniture legs) dry.

The 5-foot stove jack is made with fire retardant material and silicone-coated so you can stay warm and cook safely. If you’re the serious glamper type, you’ll probably utilize Avalon’s electrical cable outlet.

White Duck coats the Avalon’s 100% cotton canvas with a water repellent material, so it should be good to go right out of the box. Thought standing 11.2 feet tall in the center, it weighs 98 pounds packed. All in all, the Avalon is a heavy-duty canvas tent for all seasons.

Purchase

Kodiak Swag Canvas Tent

Kodiak Canvas fills a cool niche with the Swag 1-Person Tent. Usually, single sleeper tents are designed toward ultra-lightweight utility, with little regard for fit and feel. But with the Swag four-season canvas tent, lone adventurers can enjoy the great outdoors with the soft, natural feel of a canvas enclosure.

Measuring 6-feet 8-inches long and nearly 3 feet wide and tall, this four-season tent is plenty big enough for most burly mountain men. The simplicity of setup is one of its calling cards. Kodiak Canvas builds it as a reimagining of a cowboy’s bedroll. The idea is to simply unroll it, plug the poles in and throw your bag inside. It even has a built-in 2-inch foam pad with a washable flannel cover.

The outer material is cotton canvas, waterproof treated with Kodiak Canvas’s trademarked Hydra-Shield, and silicone sealed. By compromising some of its natural appeals, Kodiak Canvas makes the Swag’s material highly waterproof yet breathable. The floor has a puncture-resistant vinyl insert for durability and dryness. Screened windows at both the head and foot facilitate airflow, and the canopy rolls back to give a wide view of any starry night sky. Its inclusion of a “handy doormat” is borderline endearing.

If there’s any drawback to the Swag 1-Person Tent, it’s the weight. You’re not gonna take this thing backpacking unless you’re really into suffering under heavy loads: it weighs over 20 pounds packed. But it’s still an ingenious system for anyone who likes camping solo and wants a more curated tent built from natural materials.

Purchase

White Duck Alpha Wall Canvas Tent

White Duck’s Alpha wall tent is the clear choice for a canvas family tent. Even the most reticent campers should feel at home in Alpha, partially because it’s got most of the characteristics of a house. The cavernous 16- x 24-foot model delivers 384 square feet of enclosed comfort. Nearly all of that space is completely usable — the peak height is 10 feet, and the side walls are 5 feet tall. A PV groundsheet keeps campers’ tootsies dry. A stove jack keeps it warm inside.

Considering all this, it’s a great idea to put a tent-like the Alpha on a constructed platform. With so much material to soak up moisture, the tent is susceptible to mold and mildew. White Duck makes it in graduating sizes, starting at 8 x 10 feet. That size sleeps six; the grandaddy 16 x 24 feet sleeps 18.

The Alpha is a true four-season canvas tent with a storm door and six triple-layered windows. White Duck states it considers a stove jack an integral part of any canvas tent. Naturally, it builds a jack suitable for 5-inch or 6-inch pipes into the Alpha. Galvanized aluminum poles finish out the build.

You can upgrade to either a waterproof or waterproof/fire repellant version of the Alpha. If you’re gonna get the big one, get ready to carry it. Spanning 16 x 24 feet, the Alpha is heavy — the waterproof tent weighs in at 441 pounds, and the fire-repellant version clocks 461 pounds.

Purchase

Teton Sports Mesa Canvas Tent

The Teton Sports Mesa is a cabin-style canvas tent built for chill campsite life with electronics enabled. Multiple “e-ports,” as Teton Sports calls them, let glampers glamp to the max and make this model one of the premier canvas tents for camping. The uniform height means no awkward bending over. And a polymer floor keeps the weather from seeping up from below.

The Mesa’s unique cabin build delivers enough interior space for up to 8 without an enormous footprint. At 10 x 14 feet, Teton Sports claims a comfortable fit for six and maximum accommodation of eight. The roof is a uniform 6.5 feet high, so every inch of the interior space is usable. Teton adds gear organizers to keep the essentials straight.

With one front door and one back door, the Mesa fits the bill of a shotgun shack. Elsewhere, built-in vents facilitate airflow. An awning out front increases chillability.

The Mesa looks like a good choice for front-country shenanigans, and electrical ports help drive home the effect. Ports in the corners help campers get their screen time on in the great outdoors. Teton Sports says the 100% cotton is waterproof but does not specify any coating or treatment. Users may need to weather the tent themselves to waterproof it (see our FAQ below for details).

For more top-quality camping equipment, check out our guide to the best inflatable tents.

Purchase

Teton Sports Sierra Bell Canvas Tent

The Teton Sports Sierra is a scalable bell tent, available in sizes that sleep 10-16 people. I’ve been in yurts that would only just do that; for a portable bell-shaped structure, the Sierra is a beast. Bell tents do perform well in snowy conditions, but unfortunately, Teton overlooks adding a stove jack.

Thus, the Sierra is best used as a 3-season tent. Its built-in vents facilitate airflow, and the floor even zips away to convert the tent into an open-air canopy. Teton specifies the material as only “waterproof 100% cotton canvas.” As such, be aware you might have to weather the tent to waterproof it.

The 10-person Sierra is a 12-foot circle with an 8’ 4” roof peak. It has one door, 2 windows, gear pouches, and ports for electrical cords. The double-layer door has zippered mosquito netting for fair weather. As I mentioned, it’s missing a stove jack, which does limit its utility.

But, the 20-footer is legitimately as big as a yurt and can comfortably sleep 12 people (16 total capacity). At its peak, it’s over 11 feet tall. At that size, it’s a pretty lightweight option as canvas tents go at 114 pounds packed. The scalable Teton Sports Sierra should be a go-to for 3 season gatherings where big groups need open-air versatility.

For more great options for winter, check out our guide to the top cold weather tents.

Purchase

Canvas Tent Buying Guide & FAQ

Features to Look for in Canvas Tents

Material

Most of the tents in this guide are made from treated canvas. Waterproof and fire-retardant treatments are common, and many canvas tents are coated with silicone. This drastically changes the natural properties of the canvas. Read on for an explanation of each canvas type.

Canvas is made from one of two distinct materials: cotton or polyester.

• Polyester canvas seems like a bit of a copout for the canvas crowd — it’s not a natural fiber by any means. But it’s lighter than cotton, and because it’s a petroleum product, it repels water even better than cotton canvas. As well, it’s more resistant to mold and mildew. If you want the most waterproof canvas tent you can get, choose polyester.
• Cotton canvas has advantages in terms of sustainability, breathability, and overall feel. The bottom line is that no petroleum-derived product is renewable or easily biodegradable.

Cotton canvas is both. As well, it usually breathes better because its fibers are naturally derived and woven looser. These are major advantages for glampers, who will also appreciate cotton canvas’s soft texture.

However, cotton canvas does require a labor of love: it’s heavy, and it’s susceptible to mold, mildew, and even shrinkage. Careful care is a must.

You may see the term “duck canvas” around. Don’t be fooled: it’s just an Americanization of the Dutch word for linen canvas, “doek.”

Size

Good news: no matter how big or small your group is, there’s probably a canvas tent that will accommodate it. Our featured tents sleep anywhere from one to 18 people.

You can find the right size canvas tent whether you’re housing your team of cartographers, astronomers, and prophets on your doomed voyage to find the edge of the world or just your doggo and partner for a weekend getaway.

Waterproofness

Ah, waterproofness. Right up there with keeping unwanted snakes and scorpions out, rain protection is a central consideration for any tent. If you have an untreated cotton canvas tent, you need to “weather” it to make it waterproof.

Why? Because the fibers need to swell together to create a waterproof seal. At first, the canvas weave usually isn’t tight enough to keep water out. But the fibers swell when wet and then hold their new shape.

Though generally, every canvas tent is waterproof, polyester repels water better than cotton. We will list waterproof capabilities in each individual product’s section.

Breathability

One massive advantage of a canvas tent over a synthetic one is breathability. Why do synthetic tent interiors always condensate and smell, in the parlance of our times, like bigfoot’s dick? Because nylon and polyester do not facilitate oxygen transfer.

But cotton does! Therefore, choose it for the highest quality, breathable canvas tents. No more condensation, no more schmelly schmegma smell; just high-air-quality glamping.

Bug Proof

Many canvas tents have mesh zippered openings to keep flying critters out. Some smaller canvas expedition tents have bathtub floors to keep ground-living insects safely (even happily?) outside your tent.

Sun & Snow Protection

When you’re camping in a winter wonderland, a canvas tent can deliver a pronounced advantage over a synthetic one. Because they hold heat well, you’ll be cozy as the powder falls. And because they’re breathable, many even accommodate a wood stove.

Canvas also doesn’t condensate nearly as easily as synthetic material, so you’ll be better off in that department.

Pay attention to the snowpack on top of your tent, and keep clearing it as it piles up! Large canvas tents with a lot of roof areas are especially susceptible to the snowpack. If you don’t know why, consider that water is heavy, and your roof is collapsible.

Canvas tents also offer UV protection that borders on bougie. Consider a brilliantly sunny day. If you’re sitting inside a synthetic tent, you’re slowly cooking in the sweltering soup of your own body heat. That’s because the material can’t block the sunlight or let the hot air out.

Conversely, canvas tents stay cool inside by blocking sunlight and, again, facilitating all-important air transfer. Heat rises, right? All good if you’re sitting somewhere cool and the heat has somewhere to go.

Maintenance

Canvas tent owners need to be particularly careful to store their tents dry. Every tent needs to be stored dry, but the cotton canvas is especially susceptible to mold and mildew.

As well, aficionados recommend natural materials like hemp for guy lines. Beyond those particularities, follow the usual steps. Guy it securely so that it doesn’t flap; don’t put too much stress on zippers or seams, and don’t fold it the same way every time for storage.

The Camping and Caravanning Club put together a helpful guide for tent maintenance. Here’s a link to the PDF.

Canvas Tent FAQ

What type of canvas tents are out there?

All kinds, but really only one: the kind that’s cooler than other tents. Canvas tents commonly come in-wall, bell, or flat-roofed shapes.

And they come in all sizes (our guide features tents built for groups from 1-18 campers).

Some belong in the backcountry; some are grumpy AF. Bottom line: up to you!

How to take care of canvas tents?

It’s very important to store a canvas tent dry; the material is much more susceptible to mold and mildew. The most particular canvas tent people recommend natural fibers like hemp for guy lines. But otherwise, it’s the same as any other tent — just more intensive.

We recommend starting with The Camping and Caravanning Club’s tent care guide. Here’s the PDF.

Why are canvas tents so expensive?

It’s true, cool canvas tents don’t come cheap. For me, experiential enjoyment has to justify the cost. How cool is it to live in a semi-permanent, waterproof outdoor structure made of natural materials and fibers? Instead of sweating inside a minimally breathable plastic capsule that filters sunlight awkwardly, luxuriate in a cool, breathable, shady enclosure that smells organic.

Hell, it’ll trap heat better when it gets cold, too, and if it has a stove jack, you can heat it with a tent stove.

Now from the practical side: if you care for them well, they also last. Canvas resists ripping better than synthetic tent materials. And it’s thicker, so the kind of furry critters that like peanut butter and M&M’s have a harder time chewing through it.

If it does rip, just get out the sewing kit and patch it (detailed info here).

Do canvas tents need to be waterproofed?

Most of the canvas tents in this guide are treated with a variety of waterproof coating. In these cases, just follow the manufacturer’s instructions.

However, if you have an untreated canvas tent, it’s different. Cotton canvas tents do need to be weathered to bring out their waterproof qualities.

What does that mean? The fibers are often too loosely woven to be truly waterproof at first. But when they get wet, they swell and push against each other. Then, as they dry, they hold their shape. When the tent is fully dry, it’s a waterproof tent. Cool, huh?

You can weather a canvas tent by setting it up in the yard, hosing it down, and letting it dry.

How long will a canvas tent last?

Great question. I’ve stayed in some old ones that I’d presume got their starts in the ‘80s or ‘90s.

One in particular — a big wall tent my buddy lived in while doing on-site restoration carpentry in the Adirondacks — still smelled good and kept the weather out. Equipped with a wood stove, armchair, and rug, it was a great place to drink.

Anyway! I digress. Internet consensus suggests about a 20- to 30-year lifespan for most canvas tents. However, a canvas tent can last forever if you take care of it. Many users report their decade-old canvas tents are still as good as new.

Sources:

1. Caring For Your Canvas – Camping and Caravanning Club
2. How to Patch a Canvas Tent the Right Way – TentHacker

We’ve all faced the insult, one way or another: you’re in a beautiful place, either by yourself or with your favorite person or closest friends, and it’s time to have a drink so you reach in your jacket pocket and pull out — a single-use water bottle, refilled with your liquor of choice. You stare at the sad item for a moment, reflecting that you and your loved ones deserve better. It’s time to infuse your life’s most tasteful moments with a tasteful decanter to match. The Aged and Ore Travel Decanter is just what you need.

Aged and Ore delivers a 500-ml hand-blown glass bottle inside an insulated stainless steel canister that unscrews into two tumblers for MSRP $58.

I’m going to hit the liquor store for some Cognac, and I’ll be right back to finish this article.

Decanter Design

Aged and Ore’s travel decanter package achieves minimalist appeal with its demure stainless steel finish and wide-mouth glass bottle. Two tumblers screw together to create a safe, leakproof chamber for the hand-blown bottle.

Aged and Ore also designs the ingenious kit for high functionality. The tumblers are double-wall insulated (think thermos) for temperature control. The bottle’s wide mouth fills easily and accepts ice cubes. I’m most interested in Aged and Ore’s stopper, which the company claims to have rigorously prototyped and tested for durability and leak-tightness.

The package weighs in at a manageable 1.7 lbs.

Tasteful Travel

It’s a cool — intoxicating? — idea to travel with a hand-blown glass decanter filled with your favorite spirit. The Aged and Ore Travel Decanter makes the concept viable with its durable, spill-proof design and approachable price. Available in either stainless steel or matte black, it’s suited to rarefy the air on your next adventure.

If you think Extans simply builds bicycles to ride, think again: the British bikemaker “created” the Akhal Shadow single-speed bicycle “to embody an alluring character of stealth and prowess.” The sleek, glinting black beast is named for a rare and highly-capable horse breed indigenous to mountainous Asian highlands.

This bespoke carbon-fiber single-speed creation is anything but an aluminum road bike. Read on for the full details.

Iron — er, Carbon Fiber — Horse

The Extans Akhal Shadow is a single-speed bicycle made almost entirely of carbon fiber. Its carbon frame is monocoque, which means its skin and structure are integral (think of an eggshell). Because of its structural resiliency, the frame has no seat tube, which gives the bike a striking visual profile.

The wheels, fork, seat post, and handlebars (with integrated stem) are carbon. You’ll find aluminum on the head, dropouts, and seat clamp, all of which are CNC cut from a single billet (read: piece) of aluminum.

Extans calls the bike “a potent statement of strength and dynamism” intended for modern urban living.

Inspiration: Of Extans and Horses

The Akhal single-speed bicycle takes its name from the Akhal-Teke horse, something of a legendary animal known for its physical prowess, intelligence, and visual beauty.

Reverence for the Akhal-Teke can be seen as a reflection of Extans’ creative methods: the company values a process based on honoring inspiration and building mastery. As a result, its bicycles challenge coveted bespoke status, suggesting a deeper relationship between rider and machine.

Buy the Ticket, Take the Akhal Single-Speed Ride

If interacting with an Akhal Shadow is anything like interacting with an Akhal-Teke, you can sign me up. However, signing up would be the challenging part. Extans will create 99 Akhal Shadows (and 99 Akhal Shines, its white counterpart). Reports put the Shine at around $20,000 US and the Akhal Shadow closer to $25,000 US.

Learn More

What’s the connection between Air Jordans and riding lawn mowers? Here in the U.S., dad’s ubiquitous grass-stained New Balances are the shoes we’re probably most likely to associate with riding lawn mowers. Air Jordan’s urban mythos seems as far removed from cuttin’ grass as streetball is from the ‘burbs. Leave it to German luxury car modifier Mansory and sneaker/street fashion licenser BSTN to cut down our cultural expectations.

The BSTN GT XI is a riding lawn mower based on a famous sneaker. In 2020, the Air Jordan XI turned 25. Nike commemorated the event in December by releasing the Air Jordan XI “Jubilee.” Mansory and BSTN took the anniversary hubbub, added a dash of arcane Jordan design lore, and ran with it.

The result — the BSTN GT XI riding lawn mower — is an adventurous exercise in cultural sublimation and brand leveraging. Lace up your mowing footwear of choice and fire this baby up.

Several Odd Couples: The Lore of Riding Lawn Mowers and Sneakers

The Air Jordan XI has inspired a riding lawnmower. Er, is it the other way around? According to legend, renowned designer Tinker Hatfield generated the Air Jordan XI with lawnmowers on the brain.

The shoe that would attain sneaker immortality through Space Jam featured odd materials like patent leather and carbon fiber.

Mansory develops Hatfield’s curious lawnmower ideation with the BSTN GT XI. First, the mower’s sleek black body and whitewall tires cut the same iconic black-on-white colorway as the sneaker. Carbon fiber and leather elements (Mansory’s calling cards) abound. Find a sprinkling of silver Jumpman, BSTN, and Mansory badges in various locations on the mower’s body and wheels, and complete your sneaker lawnmower fantasy with a racing-inspired seat.

Copping The Goods: Release Details

The BSTN GT XI released in December 2020, marrying iconic sneaker anniversary with design legend and lawn care.

The advertising campaign (led by BSTN) features FC Bayern Munich’s Alphonso Davies in yet another tangential reference to pop culture: the young shooting star is a self-proclaimed Air Jordan XI lover.

This bizarre phenomenon of cross-branding and cultural-fantasy sublimation — I mean, this riding lawn mower — can be yours by visiting Mansory’s website and following the “contact a dealer” link.

So lace ‘em up, dream your hoop dreams, and get cutting.

I’ll never forget my first stand-up paddleboard experience. It was in Apalachicola Bay, a tiny area of the Gulf known for warm water and delicious scallops. My wife and I rented paddleboards and set off across the bay, immediately realizing what a revolution our boards were — because you could see down into the water. As we paddled, all sorts of flora and fauna became suddenly visible because we were at a higher angle than if we’d been in an inflatable kayak or canoe. Now a French paddleboard company called LOEVA is taking this experience to the next level with Le StandUp — a completely transparent paddleboard.

Transparent Paddleboard Beauty

It’s important to note that the Le StandUp is not a surfboard–it is a standup paddleboard. It has a wide, stable base (31 inches) and a rounded nose meant to provide a relaxing, stable platform for paddling.

And what an experience paddling this board promises! The crystal-clear material is unique among paddleboards. On top of that, the Le StandUp features a rechargeable LED lighting system with a battery life of three hours and a range of 45 feet (in totally clear water). The frame that surrounds the transparent sections is a crisp carbon material: light but strong.

The board weighs 44 pounds, is suitable for beginners through experts, and ships with a paddle, leash, fin, and charger (with international adaptor).

Buy It. Do Some Good.

The Le StandUp paddleboard is made in France, and a portion of every purchase goes towards Reefscapers — a non-profit that helps rebuild coral reefs. There isn’t any word on a price yet, so we suggest following LOEVA on their social media channels to stay apprised of any news!

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Your bare feet sift through cool sand as you enjoy an after-dark walkabout in the desert. Joshua trees and sculpted granite boulders cut other-worldly silhouettes in the staggering celestial display. The air is uncannily still.

Suddenly, you notice a strange glow just beyond a nearby dune. Do you faintly hear music — or are those voices? You crest the dune, and a bizarre shape appears. An 11-foot-tall prism of light, with a pointed prow and a dark foundation on which it seems to levitate. You walk toward it slowly and open the portal to — your home? But wait a minute — this is a spaceship, not a four-season tent!

Actually, it’s neither. The surreal enclosure is a Jupe unit, a 111-square foot, WiFi-enabled, sci-fi-inspired prefab shelter. For the work-from-home nomad and the cosmic voyager inside us all, the future of glamping is here. But Jupe is way more than a tent — that becomes obvious the moment you see it. Come along with us while we explore the next frontier.

Star Child: Birth of the Jupe Unit

Jupe draws its inspiration from the unforgettable black monoliths of 2001: A Space Odyssey.

“We turned to ideas that inspired and excited us,” CEO Jeff Wilson says of Jupe’s beginnings. “Remember that monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey? It last sent signals to Jupiter from the moon. It seems that a few of those blueprints were bounced back to Earth. We intercepted them and created Jupe.”

Wilson gathered team members with prior experience at SpaceX, Tesla, and Airbnb to drive Jupe’s far-out design. Its mission? To strike a balance between connectivity, nature experience, and inspirational living space. Identifying a rift between traditional camp dwellings (think RVs, tents, or cabins) and modern campers’ high-tech needs, the company builds for functionality and aesthetics.

“Experiencing the natural wonders of the world shouldn’t mean being forced to disconnect while staying in a less-than-inspirational living space,” Wilson says. The first production Jupe unit launched on December 21, 2020. It did not disappoint. Designed for easy transport and shaped to fit anywhere, users are encouraged to take Jupe to the desert, beach, forest, or even the backyard.

Earth to Jupe: Instructions Upon Arrival

So how does this thing work? Jupe arrives in a flat-packed format on its chassis foundation; assembly requires just hours. Fire-resistant canvas stretches between interconnected aluminum masts to frame the unique, luminous shape.

Once assembled, the Jupe unit is a powerhouse. Its innovative chassis contains the wiring, electrical, and mechanical elements of a home. Basically, everything else you’d find in a home is inside. A panoramic front opening welcomes the user. Inside, find cavernous 11-foot ceilings and a floor finished in Baltic birch wood-tile. Not sure where to put your stuff? The floor opens into 38+ cubic feet of storage compartments.

Each unit is furnished with a queen bed (featuring a Nectar mattress), a desk, chair, and ottoman. Upgrades include a patio, Alexa-enabled Sonos Move speaker, locking safe, and solar panels.

If you don’t spring for the solar upgrade, don’t worry about connectivity: Jupe has a 200Ah battery system that drives a WiFi router, four electrical outlets, and USB charging stations, and Jupe’s signature LED lighting (with dimmer switch).

To the skeptic, it sounds like an elaborate kit to introduce into delicate ecosystems. Another concern is exposure to the elements. But Jupe is built for resiliency and resource preservation: Wilson’s team chose materials with durability in mind. Jupe’s makers specifically designed the unit’s chassis and up-sweeping shape to minimize the land impact.

Odyssey: Living the Jupe Life

So is Jupe a glorified four-season tent? A house that comes on a pallet? An esoteric spacecraft designed for our planet by cosmic beings beyond our comprehension?

Jupe takes its form in the eye of the beholder. You can behold a Jupe yourself on the company’s launch tour of California and Nevada, at sites like Joshua Tree, Big Bear Lake, and Yosemite. Or, if you’re ready to take the leap, pre-order your unit for $99. First deliveries roll out in Spring 2021, and the finished unit will cost you $17,500 — pretty cheap for a spaceship.

There’s more to making a quality e-bike than strapping a battery onto a bike frame. The engineers at Reevo know this, and they’ve spent 5 years designing the Reevo Hubless E-Bike to prove it to you. Packed full of thoughtful and innovative features, the Reevo is sure to impress even the most die-hard mechanical bike enthusiast.

See, if you aren’t biking to work, you probably should be. Some time out in the open air between work and home is a great way to transition between the phases of your daily life — not to mention the exercise is good for you! But if your bike commute is longer than 10 miles or so (or you live in a super-hilly area), that daily grind back and forth can be more intimidating (and exhausting) than it needs to be. That’s why e-bikes, for all their detractors, are continuing to make huge strides in the bike commuter market. 

Reevo E-Bike Features

“The interplay of light and shadow is a key pillar of our design philosophy.”

That’s a quote from Reevo’s sizzle video on Indiegogo, and while we usually dismiss such claims as pure marketing tripe, in this case, well … it seems to apply. The electric bike’s matte-black finish pairs with the hubless wheel design to create a specimen that seems more at home on a spaceship than it does on the streets.

But don’t let the attention to form distract you from all of that function. The Reevo e-bike contains features we’d love to see in all e-bikes moving forward. The maintenance-free drivetrain features two modes — peddle assist and e-drive. Peddle assist mode helps you out by measuring speed, acceleration, torque, cadence, road grade, and giving you a boost whenever you need one. That’s a great way to get to work without arriving soaked in sweat! If you want a little more speed in your life, activate e-drive mode and use the throttle to crank your ride all the way up to 25 mph.

Both modes find support in the lightweight frame made from aerospace-grade aluminum alloys. The result is a well-handling bike that weighs 55 lbs with a max carrying capacity of 265 lbs. Nice? Yeah, we think so.

The Reevo has the same ergonomic saddle and internal cable routing you expect from high-end bikes these days and features a USB charger, phone holder, and bag storage hooks. The bike takes about 3 hours to charge once you’ve completely drained its battery.

Safety

Our favorite feature on the Reevo e-bike is the lighting system. The 750-lumen headlights and taillights come on when it starts to get dark thanks to an integrated sensor. Seven hundred fifty lumens is a rad amount of lighting by bike standards. Even better — the Reevo’s brake and taillights keep motorists apprised of your intentions when you are heading home during those early winter evenings.

Security

Spoiler alert: the Reevo is pricey (see the Buy-In section below), but you don’t have to worry about knocking-off your investment thanks to the bike’s thoughtfully engineered three-layer security system. Layer one: a keyless finger-print enabled wheel lock feature. Layer two: the wheel lock tucks safely away inside the Reevo — far beyond the reach of any bolt cutters. Layer three: a motion detector comes online when the electric bike’s in park and will sound an alarm on your phone if someone touches your e-baby.

On top of all that, an integrated GPS feature allows you to track the Reevo in real-time, just if the worst should happen!

The Reevo E-Bike Buy-In

The Reevo is taking early-bird orders on Indiegogo as we speak. A pledge of $1,199 will get you a single Reevo, while a pledge of $2,323 gets you the e-bike, an extra battery, an extra charger, plus a wheel bag.

Purchase

Watching the Geminid Meteor Shower

Driving to West Texas late one night as a child, I kept seeing shooting stars. My mother pulled over, and it turns out we were watching the Leonid meteor shower. It’s one of my favorite memories as a child. We were going camping in the quiet West Texas desert, and that little stop was one of the best moments of the trip. Today, we’ve got a chance for you to have a special stargazing moment with your family, too. The Geminid meteor shower is coming up shortly, and it’s one of the strongest meteor showers of the year.

The Geminid meteor shower and most meteor showers are named based on what constellation it blocks out. The Geminid meteors block out the constellation Gemini, and you’ll be able to stargaze and see the show as early as this week (the week of December 6th, 2020). However, for the best performance, you’ll want to be patient and wait until the New Moon, which occurs on December 13th and 14th.

The Geminid differs from other meteor showers in that its meteors are the remnants of an asteroid, whereas most other meteor showers originate from comets. These meteors appear as shooting stars as they enter and consequently burn up in Earth’s atmosphere. Spotting scopes, binoculars, night vision binoculars, and other forms of telescopes will be helpful, but you have a great chance of seeing this meteor shower with the naked eye. Up to 120 meteors per hour go flying through the air during peak show time (around 2 a.m. in the contiguous U.S.). These balls of fury move quickly and are very bright — they are even known to present bright colors as they zoom through the night sky.

Setting Yourself Up for Success

Alright, let’s start with the basics. If you think you’re going to see this shower from your penthouse apartment in Los Angeles or New York City — I’m sorry to inform you that it just isn’t going to happen. You’ll need to head somewhere dark, without light pollution, to get a great view. A forest might seem to fit this bill, but if the trees are obstructing your optics of the sky, that’s not ideal. Try to head to a lookout point with a clear overhead view of an open space far away from the city!

Additionally, if you’re in the Northern Hemisphere — it’s winter and likely cold. Be sure to prepare for the cooler weather and bring sleeping bags, blankets, and other items to keep you warm. Other ideas for warmth might include hand warmers or a warm drink like hot cocoa, tea or if you really want a fun time — try a hot toddy.

Now that you’ve found a spot and you’re warm and cozy let’s get oriented for viewing. At least 30 minutes after dark, lie down with your feet facing south and try to take in as much of the sky as possible in your view. After some time, your eyes will begin to adjust, and with some luck, you’ll start seeing the meteors.

Best Times for Viewing

You can view the Geminids as early as 30 minutes after dark until just before dawn. Any time after 9 p.m. is game for this meteor shower, but your best views will occur around 2 a.m. The Moon is currently waning (getting smaller) and will continue getting smaller until the New Moon rises on December 13th and 14th. We’ll have less light from the Moon during the New Moon and the best chances for seeing the most meteors and stargazing.

Another key consideration to take? The weather in your area. You’re unlikely to see anything if you’ve got cloudy skies above you. Clear, dark nights are always the best nights for stargazing! The show really kicks up around 9 or 10 p.m., making the Geminid meteor shower one of the best viewing opportunities for young children since they’ll only be up a hair past their bedtime.

Alright, fellow stargazers, you’re prepped to view one of the most fabulous shows of the year. We hope you enjoy the Geminids as much as we will and stay warm while you do so. Be patient as you watch for the meteors; we promise they’ll be worth the wait. While you’re out there, it’s a great time to look for other constellations and learn the night sky around you. See if you can learn to spot the Big Dipper, Little Dipper, Orion, Taurus, and Cassiopeia — these are some of the most easily visible and recognizable constellations.

How does one overland, exactly? There’s an infinite number of ways to travel across this great country of ours (and beyond), but how you do it, and what you do it in, matters a great deal. From half-million-dollar EarthRoamers and decked-out Mercedes Sprinter vans that cost as much as a house, all the way down to your great uncle’s rusted out truck camper or a blow-up mattress in the back of your beloved Subaru, it all works. That’s the real joy in this travel game, it’s infinitely scalable, and now there are hundreds of companies making products for every budget. Whether you need a camper trailer, a full-blown doomsday machine, or just an easy-to-pack tent, overlanding is an inclusive pastime for the modern age.

Washington-based company SCOUT has long loved the outdoors and how we have to access and explore the territory. However, driving a large RV into the great outdoors can be cumbersome, slow, and may ultimately cause you to spend too much time inside. Instead, they have introduced a line of campers that fit on the back of your truck that offers all of the amenities you want from an RV without a huge footprint. Their new Kenai truck camper model is the biggest they’ve brought to market yet; let’s take a look at the features and see if it fits your exploration needs.

Bring It

SCOUT’s design principle is fairly simple: build high-quality amenities you’d expect in a luxury camper trailer in an affordable and agile package. While Kenai is the biggest in the company’s truck camper lineup, it remains a nimble and non-burdensome addition to any full-sized truck. Unloaded, the camper itself weighs around 1000 pounds, which is well below the payload of any full-sized truck.

Inside the Kenai, there’s room for the whole family. A small dinette sits in the middle of the floorplan and can easily be removed from the vehicle and plopped down into the campsite, a design ethic that SCOUT touts throughout this truck camper. Flanking the dining room table is space for a two-burner propane stove, a large cooler, and plenty of storage for all of your goods.

Each Kenai is highly customizable. The “floor model” shown on the website features an optional Newport Heater, Dometic cooler, and many other features you may not want to leave behind. Beyond these basics, the Kenai can build a mudroom in the rear entrance that doubles as a shower. In the fore of the camper, there’s a space to integrate a modern cassette toilet in case nature calls, and it’s just too darned cold to go outside.

Like many modern overlanding options on the market, the sky is the limit when it comes to upgrades. Even if you’ve got a big family, they can install a pop-up tent on top, giving the Kenai truck camper enough room to sleep up to six people. What more could you need?

Build It

The base model of the SCOUT Kenai is jam-packed with features. The starting price for this package is $23,625. It comes equipped with power, jerry cans for water, Pendleton interior fabrics, three beds (a full-size cabin bed and two smaller fold-outs), both interior and exterior lighting, and much more. Standard upgrades, which you can price into your bid right on their website, include awnings, rooftop tents, coolers, a heater, and many other amenities that you could live without but might love to have.

Build time on the Kenai and the rest of the SCOUT lineup is somewhere in the range of 3 to 4 months, but time can vary depending on availability. So if you’re going to get set up for the next camping season, you better move quickly!

Purchase

Packable, portable, easy-to-use grill? Cookouts just got a lot better. Snow Peak has outdone themselves with this 31.5-pound grill reminiscent of Japanese restaurants cooking horseshoe crabs tableside. (Or maybe that’s just our hunger talking.) In fact, these Takibi Grills were designed in the Land of the Rising Sun to withstand a lifetime of use and good times. “Takibi” means “fire” in Japanese, so the description is right on the nose. While pellet grills are great for many occasions, sometimes you need a collapsible grill and fire pit for portability. Thankfully, Snow Peak’s Tabiki Fire and Grill offers both with decades-long durability guaranteed.

The Takibi Grill is made from stainless steel and chrome-coated steel for maximum fire resistance and durability. While it’s $320 price tag may not be in the once-a-year camper’s budget, the Takibi Grill will be worth its weight in gold to the outdoor weekend warrior. With the coronavirus pandemic keeping folks at home, many users have claimed that this fire pit has transformed their backyard into a novel campground.

Set up is a snap: unpack the pieces from your carrying case. Slide the base stand together through the middle notches, with the “L” pointed towards the sky. Set the base stand on flat ground. Place the base plate on top of the base stand, which will fit into the corner grooves. Unfold the fire basin and set it securely on the notches at the base’s corners. Place the grill bridge over the fire basin and adjust it to the height you want. (Closer to the fire means more heat, so plan your grill height according to what you’re cooking.) Now it’s time to build your fire! Once you’ve built your fire, place the grill net over the top, and get cooking.

What separates the Takibi Grill from other grills is the grill net. Through the employment of a woven net design, this grill allows you to grill smaller items than you could on a traditional grill. Place individual shrimp, vegetables, cubes of meat, oysters, and more directly on the grill net without fear of your food falling into the flames. We’d buy this grill just for that.

We can find only two complaints with this fire pit and grill:  its weight and its incompatibility with charcoal pieces. However, the latter can be remedied: Snow Peak offers a steel Fireplace Coal Bed to evenly distribute heat by raising charcoal, briquettes, or even your firewood up from the concave base of the fire pit. The Fireplace Coal Bed will set you back another $49, but the versatility it offers may well be worth it.

Purchase