Don’t Get Burned With Stove Choice

Q. Should I get a stove with a separate fuel tank attached by a hose or one with a tank built into it? Thomas Price chief9601@msn.com

Gear Guy: Stoves with separate fuel tanks, such as MSR’s wildly popular Whisperlite and Peak 1’s Apex, certainly dominate the market. By splitting the tank from the stove, you’re able to make a lighter stove and eliminate the hassle of refueling. On the other hand, you’ve got more pieces to fool with. To be perfectly honest, I still like the convenience of a tank/stove combo. A stove like Peak 1’s Feather 400 contains plenty of fuel for a weekend of reasonable cooking. It’s easy to light, simmers well and is hotter than - well, you know - when running full-bore. They’re $40. In component stove systems, the aforementioned Whisperlite ($50) and Peak 1 Apex ($50) are the clear market leaders.

Q. Gear Guy, every 3 to 4 years I do a major 2,000-mile bicycle tour whether I need it or not. I’d like a new lightweight 4.5- to 5-pound (with fly) two-person tent. I have not kept up with the tent progress as I have in the past and would appreciate your input. Roger Hefflinger roger@elixir.isu.edu

Gear Guy: At the moment, I happen to think the ideal two-person, three-season tent is the Sierra Designs Orion CD. It came out earlier this year and is just terrific - 35 square feet of floor space, good ventilation and a small vestibule for storing gear. Best of all, it weighs just under five pounds, yet is plenty durable enough for nearly any weather you’ll run into outside the dead of winter. It’s $239; a reasonable price, in my view.

If you REALLY want to shave pounds, take a look at The North Face’s Lightspeed Long ($215). It’s a pound less than the Orion, due to it’s all-mesh canopy walls and two-pole construction that necessitates staking (the Orion is free-standing). Walrus’s Arch Rival ($185), one of my perennial favorites for light camping, is a tad lighter even than the Lightspeed, and a few inches wider to boot.

Q. Doug, I am interested in buying a Giant Iguana SE or a bike of comparable value. I like Giant because they make their own frames and because I have ridden an Iguana for about eight years now. Is there any other bike around $500 that I should consider? John Robinson swissjar.worldnet.att

Gear Guy: In that price range, John, it’s largely a matter of getting the best component set for the buck. Fit aside, the frames aren’t all that much different from one another. The Iguana is a pretty decent bike; others to look at include the Mongoose Hill Topper SX (a little better front shock; $569); the Specialized Rock Hopper FS (same shock, shifters as the Iguana; $540) and the Gary Fisher Mamba (upgrade to some components and shock, plus Fisher cachet; $600). On the other hand, if it were my money I’d go with the Performance M-406S, one of that mail order/retail chain’s house-brand bikes. It lists for $589, with basically the same component group and frame material found in Giant’s $700 ATX 750.

Bottom line: Bargain hunt. Try go get something with Shimano STX components (not Alivio or Acera), and a RockShox Quadra 21R or similar. You ought to be able to find one on sale someplace, and get a bit better components for the $560 you’re prepared to shell out for the Iguana.

MEMO: Send your questions directly to Interactive Gear Guy Douglas Gantenbein by e-mail at gearguy@starwave.com or check out his twice-weekly column on Outside Online at http://outside.starwave.com

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