Tucking into the woods on a late Friday afternoon, my family headed to our favorite backpacking site. The state park trail cycles through the best of what the upper Ozarks has to offer — large boulders, towering cliffs above creek beds, and changing ecosystems along the trail, from tall Pines to wide oaks and prairie grass.
On my back is a solid 27 pounds of toddler (our child), his KidCo Peapod, and my sleeping pad, while my partner has the rest of what we need — our cookware, our sleeping bags, and of course, our Big Agnes Copper Spur UL 3.
Our camping trips are sometimes by foot, sometimes by bike, or sometimes by boat. The bikepacking compatible Copper Spur effortlessly accommodates all three. With Big Agnes’ short-pole technology, we can fit it as easily in our packs as we can between handlebars or in the hull of a kayak.
The Big Agnes Copper Spur HV UL3 offers campers comfort in a compact package. And with the new “Hotel” accessory, the tent’s storage and hangout vestibule area is effectively doubled. For a family of three (with our dog), it is almost a perfect camping shelter… almost.
In short: The Big Agnes Copper Spur UL3 Bikepack tent ($700) and the Copper Hotel HV UL3 Rainfly ($400) combine to make a pricey but spacious option for backwoods and backtrail comfort. The ultralight nylon double-ripstop exterior of the hotel provides hardy shelter even in the worst of Midwest storms. The tent is breathable and well-ventilated, and is made with high-quality, durable, and waterproof materials. Best of all, though, it fits on the handlebars of a bike or the hull of a kayak.
Check out GearJunkie’s guide to the Best Backpacking Tents.
Specifications
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Lightweight and packable
- Short poles fit between bike handlebars and inside kayak hulls
- Large vestibule for extra storage and dry space
- Lightweight walls and venting reduce moisture build up
- Large mesh pockets for storage
Cons
- Small internal space for three people
- Pricier than some competitors
- Specialized uses
Big Agnes Copper Spur HV UL3 Review
Most backpacking tents use poles that don’t fit between the handlebars of a bike. It’s a problem that most bikepackers are familiar with, and it really limits your options when looking for shelters to strap to your trusty steed.
Big Agnes solves this problem with their patented “Short Pole” technology. By making the connection points closer together, the Copper Spur tent fits easily between handlebars or in a seat pack bag. It also makes the tent easier to pack solo in a smaller backpacking bag, in a bear box, or in the dry hull of a kayak.
The design greatly enhances the versatility of the Copper Spur for people who want to take their tent on different types of adventures. That’s why the Copper Spur UL2 (the two-person version) is currently GearJunkie’s Best Overall Tent on our guide to the Best Backpacking Tents. In 2022, I reviewed the Big Agnes Copper Spur 2 for GearJunkie — a tent I’ve taken across Missouri on the Katy Trail twice and on a 250-mile section of the Great Divide Trail in the Colorado Rockies.
I was excited to test the new, three-person version of this tent. So, the family and I loaded up and headed for the woods.
Growing Need for Greater Space
Since I reviewed the Copper Spur UL2 tent in 2023, my bike- and backpacking needs have grown. With a dog and a toddler, we now need more space, so I upgraded to the Copper Spur UL3 — the three-person version of the same tent. With the space upgrade, I also sprung for the Copper Hotel HV UL3 Rainfly, a sizable vestibule add-on. The Hotel allows us to move the pooch to the “porch” while saving the limited indoor space.
Sitting the HV UL3 next to my older HV UL2, I almost thought I had ordered the wrong tent. Packed up, it looked almost identical in size and was only slightly heavier.
What’s New?
The Copper Spur got several notable updates to its design since my previous version. The biggest among them is the tent’s main fabric. The old Copper Spur used Big Agnes’ proprietary ultralight double ripstop nylon. Now it uses the brand’s strongest and most durable HyperBead fabric, which is 15-denier nylon ripstop with 20-denier solution-dyed ripstop grid. It has a 1,500mm waterproof rating without intentionally added PFAS.
Where the old design had dry helmet storage webbing on the tent’s exterior, the new version features an oversized overhead pocket on the inside, large enough to fit a bike helmet. It also uses a new injection-molded TPU cross-pole socket that supposedly makes setup faster and even easier.
Big Agnes removed the old Copper Spur’s dedicated media pocket, added daisy chain webbing to the interior, and extended the overhead loop to accommodate hanging headlamps. The tent also now comes with a dry bag stuff sack with “Big Hitch” straps to easily attach to a mounting point.
Increasing Space With Minimal Weight
The Copper Hotel add-on almost doubles the UL3 tent’s space, creating a backwoods refuge from the rain or sun. It offers plenty of space for gear and bikes to keep them safe from the elements while still out of your sleeping area. We also found that it worked well as a dog house.
The last perk was particularly beneficial. On our other trips, we tried to sleep all four of us in the tent, and it was tough keeping our puppy from trampling the baby’s sleep pod. He also seemed to sleep better where he could stretch out from us. Small dogs could fit under the vestibule, though, so it’s wise to keep them on a leash whenever they’re sleeping in the Hotel.
Snappy Setup
With the Short Pole design, the poles snap together almost automatically and are connected at the top. The color-coded system makes them very easy to place. The setup is achievable with one person in 5–10 minutes, and even quicker to take down.
The hotel add-on took a little more troubleshooting on the first setup. We initially put it on backward, and it only has one dedicated side, requiring turning the tent 180 degrees to avoid running into a tree. But after the initial setup, the second time out was smooth sailing.
When It Pours, It Stores
One of my favorite features of the Copper Spur is the substantial pocket space. Large pockets hang from the ceiling, above your head, and in each corner to hold stuff sacks, jackets, rechargers, a bike helmet, and whatever else you may need. Additional daisy chain webbing on the outside and the inside can hang sweaty clothes to dry.
The large vestibule doors feature bottom venting to help alleviate moisture build-up, a big benefit as you increase bodies inside the tent, especially in swampy summer storms.
With the lightweight fabric, those rain droplets come down hard. The waterproof material holds, but it just makes for a loud night. But that’s the kind of white noise I relish in the woods, and pay to recreate at home.
Space at a Premium
The UL3 did provide measurably more space than the UL2, which, as my previous review stated, was a tight “two-person.” Our sleeping pads next to each other would push out the sides of the tent to the absolute maximum. I had hoped the three-person version would provide similar options, barely enough room for three pads, but that wasn’t the case.
Two adult pads, including one tapered, fit with a few inches of extra room on each side, but in no world was there room for a third. There wasn’t even room for our son’s KidCo Peapod, which, for reference, is narrower than my Big Agnes sleeping pad.
Unfortunately for us, we made this spatial discovery having already arrived at a backpacking campsite four miles from the trailhead and 60 miles from home, leaving us to arrange by resting the peapod on the feet of our pads and sleeping contorted around it.
The Hotel add-on came in clutch at this point because the dog in no way fit inside on top of the pile. He rested comfortably in the closed vestibule on his foam pad.
This was an important lesson: reading the actual measurements of a tent and opening it before getting into the woods. I would gladly trade a few ounces of weight to cover those few critical inches we needed to actually make this a true three-person (even just for a child).
Shortfalls
Unfortunately, the Hotel doesn’t offer a Short Pole option for bikepacking, unlike the tent. I don’t know why Big Agnes would make such a useful bikepacking accessory without the bike-friendly Short Poles that make the Copper Spur tent so versatile.
I hope to see a future edition that is handlebar compatible. However, it is still narrow enough to fit on a medium- to large-sized bike frame. And for backpacking, it’s a no-brainer add-on that provides far more benefit than the extra weight it adds.
For livable space, it works better sitting on the floor than in a backpacking chair. Mine made it so I just barely scraped the top with my head.
The Hotel is also an expensive upgrade. When you’re already spending $600 on a tent, it’s tough to justify an additional $400 for an enhanced vestibule.
Big Agnes Copper Spur HV UL3: Who Is It For?
The upgraded Big Agnes Copper Spur HV UL3 Bikepack tent is a great option for two people who want a little more space than the UL2 provides, and the Copper Hotel HV UL3 Rainfly provides even more dry space for a dog, gear, or just rainy refuge when you need it.
The inside provided many of the same great features as my UL2, with even better storage space, more fastening options, more durable materials, and an easy setup that takes one person less than 10 minutes and two people less than 5 minutes (assuming a toddler isn’t trying to sabotage your progress).
Calling it a true three-person tent may be a stretch. However, for two people who don’t mind a little more cost and weight to avoid being on top of each other, this is a versatile purchase that will serve an adventurous lifestyle, and works for multiple activities.
