we went to decathalon in stockport on sunday to get some snorkelling masks ,fancy trying this looks to b good fun, when we were there noticed some Quencha tents the two second tent lokks ok for an overnighter ,anybody have any more info ? at £35 seems worth it
Decathlon isn't a 'cheap' store. It is a massive French chain. Their tents are far better quality than places like Aldi and Macro. I would recommend the store to anyone. I buy most of my cycling and walking gear from there, and it is on a par with the more expensive named products but much cheaper. They have a team in the Tour de France who use their own bikes, so they must be pretty good. They have a web site but I don't think they do mail order.
A friend of mine has a Quencha (a huge 3 bedroom dome), stood up to some battering last year and came out of it unscathed. Only drawback was that it didn't have a SIG and the side walls let a lot of draught through (obviously designed for better climates than the UK ).
To be honest I quite liked the tent, plenty of room, easy to erect as it was flysheet first (just hang the bedroom pods up once erected).
------------- CamperPete
Never be afraid to try something new, remember.... Amateurs built the 'Ark'... but Professionals built the 'Titanic' !!!
Decathlon isn't a 'cheap' store. It is a massive French chain. Their tents are far better quality than places like Aldi and Macro. I would recommend the store to anyone. I buy most of my cycling and walking gear from there, and it is on a par with the more expensive named products but much cheaper. They have a team in the Tour de France who use their own bikes, so they must be pretty good. They have a web site but I don't think they do mail order.
I know it's a big French chain, but it does sell a lot of cheap stuff which is not the same quality as some of the other brands.
I buy loads of walking and sports gear from Decathalon, but there's some stuff I wouldn't use - like their rugby boots or hiking boots for example. My Hi-Tec hiking boots stood up to some seriously wet ground in Scotland this year - my wifes Quecha (sp?) boots didn't have a hope. The difference in these boots price, my boots were £70 her's were £30. Their boots are fine for dry, Sunday afternoon walking.
When you consider my boots are at the bottom end of the 'proper' boots, Decathalon sell cheap stuff
Now their clothing is great - I bought £60 of socks for the whole family to take to Scotland this summer
I think Decathalon is a great store, but I don't recommend all their gear.
Your comments about walking boots are interesting. I bought a pair for £25 from Decathlon, and they have been faultless, including doing 4 peaks in Snowdonia on very wet ground in July. They went into a couple of hidden streams (stupid me) and were completely waterproof.
Quencha are one of the biggest selling brand of tents on the continent and have a brilliant reputation there. On our last trip to Galway, the field was 70% full of them as the majority of tenters were also from overseas, we had some serious gale force storms and they all withstood them no problem (unlike the 3 outwells!)
Quote: Originally posted by teencham on 14/09/2005
Quencha are one of the biggest selling brand of tents on the continent and have a brilliant reputation there. On our last trip to Galway, the field was 70% full of them as the majority of tenters were also from overseas, we had some serious gale force storms and they all withstood them no problem (unlike the 3 outwells!)
And yet at Invercoe, after a night of very heavy rain I walked passed 2 little Quencha tents and the campers were mopping out all the water that had got in! They looked very wet inside.