My MSR Hubba Hubba 🎪 has finally given up on me! It has endured at least a few hundred camping sites, if not more. As with most tents, the zips are generally the first things to fail. This is the case with my precious Hubba Hubba. The zips curve round in one loop and would be fairly hard to repair. The welded seems are looking a bit ragged too. So a new tent it is then 😄

As with any purchase today, one can spend an infinity on research due to the web! It has its plus‘s, but you’ll soon enter a rabbit warren of information: pros and cons … eventually, you have to go, frack it and buy something! 💸

Why not the MSR Hubba Hubba again I hear you say? In my opinion the Hubba Hubba was the perfect bicycle 🚵 touring/adventure tent. Not excessively heavy, more than adequate space, great materials, strong structure and more importantly, a respectable colour to blend in for wild camping. The new MSR NX Hubba Hubba has good weight and space, but the material is not as durable (I don’t care what MSR say, they haven’t seen a NX Hubba Hubba floor, with footprint become wet inside, in a downpour ☔ osmosis!) and the inner colour, is, wait for it ... white. WHITE! WTF! Evidently the marketing honchos think everyone we all want to be seen (except in snow)! For wild camping, it couldn’t be any worse! MSR design gurus have lost their bleeding marbles! Why change things that are near perfect, just for the sake of changing something! 😠

So bye to MSR and say high to NEMO!

I’m not going rabbit on about the specifications, etc. as there’s enough information out there in the ether! NEMO Galaxi 2p Tent

But weight 🤣 it’s fair to middling. About as heavy as I’d wish to go. Yes, there are lighter 2 person tents. Clearly a 1 person tent is a lot lighter, but I enjoy space! When having a rest day, which I manage frequently, it’s nice to have space! On a bicycle 80% of the combined weight is you, so a few 100 grams here or there isn’t worth having palpitations over! 💟

The Galaxi’s weight increase over the Hubba Hubba is the heavier gauge material. Durability is my greatest concern, so that’s good. Fly Fabric 68D PeU Polyester Ripstop (1500 mm) and the Floor Fabric 75D PeU Polyester (3000 mm). These gauges are on par with the MSR Elixr tent, but the inner of that tent, is, well, white! Same old same old! 🙄

Key aspects of the Galaxi 2P I really like:

✔️ Colour (canyon). I’ll give MSR their due here, the new Hubba Hubba NX outer rain-fly colour is spot on. A dark green. Lush! Only for the European market, though. It’s a very very very light grey (white) for the northern American market! 🤣

✔️ Vent tabs on the doors and side panel (side panels add extra structure too with the guy ropes)

✔️ Magnetic catch for the inner (I thought initially a gimmick, but works surprisingly well)

✔️ Ceiling lofts (comes built into the inner). On most offer brands this will be a optional extra.

✔️ Pole structure works incredibly well and pulls the inner out on the edges. More valuable space!

✔️ Strong zips (lightweight zips are all well and good, but they’ll fail all too easily)

✔️ High tub sides. Super good!

✔️ Inner mesh is see-all-round (the new Hubba Hubba NX has, yes you guessed it, white-enclosed-panels. Not the all see-round-mesh as previous)

✔️ Footprint comes with the tent. Again optional with offer brands … MSR!

Not so good:

❌ The tent is a good colour for wild camping (‘canyon’ they call it), but they insist on having a reflective banding material in all the guy ropes and hooks. I had to painstakingly extract it all. It reflects like you wouldn’t believe! 💡So that negative can be resolved.

❌ Tent pegs are an inexpensive aluminum. These will fail on sturdy ground, as they did! Compared to the MSR pegs, which have lasted on about anything I’ve attempted to batter them into 🔨 Again, this can be resolved! 

That’s about it for the negatives. Which then leave none!

Typically with my Hubba Hubba I would’ve stuffed the tent in a compression sack when storing on the bike, but with the Galaxi been a heavier gauge material, it doesn’t work so well. So best to roll up the tent and slide into a bag. As per the instructions! 😆

All in all the Galaxi is easy to setup. It’s robust and most importantly the colour works surprisingly well when wild camping. 

My first outing with the Nemo Galaxi was to the Munda Biddi Trial in Western Australia. I used the tent all of the time, about thirty days. I felt nice and cosy on the one rainy day, but I‘ve yet to experience the tent in a good’ol howling wind 🌬️ I don’t doubt its ability to handle it.

The tent packs away in a 31 litre Ortlieb rack-bag that sits across my rear panniers. The tent, with pegs and poles will take up about 2/3rds of the rack-bag, leaving enough space for my Thermarest NeoAir camper mat (large) and Ortlieb 4 litre water carrier. I can still get the water 🚰 carrier in the bag when full, just!

Nevertheless, the burning question, would I have kept with MSR if they hadn’t changed the colour of the inner tent to white ... YES! But on the flip side, I’m equally happy with my Nemo Galaxi 2P tent in canyon! 🏕️

In the UK expect to pay around the £250 mark. Cheaper across the pond in the US 🙄