In recent years, a small contingent of camping gear designers have done something radical: they’ve admitted that sleeping bags aren’t always comfortable. Their rebellion was at times overt (remember Poler’s Napsack?) but is often subtler, as in Nemo Equipment’s bulbous “spoon” shape, which provides more space at the knees. Zenbivy’s design splits the sleeping bag into two pieces. Its newest campsite sleep system, the MotoBed, makes another hard admission: that as much as we like to consider ourselves bold adventurers, most of us camp out next to our cars.
With that fact in mind, Zenbivy made the MotoBed big. Not so much that you can’t carry it without help — it weighs just over 8.5 pounds, heavier than most backpacking tents — but enough to add a a 1.5-inch pillow top to its 1.5-inch inflating mattress. Yes, this sleeping bag, if you can even call it that, includes a pad as part of its all-in-one idea of snoozing outdoors.
The rest of the MotoBed functions like Zenbivy’s other sleep systems. There’s a sheet that connects to the mattress and includes a hood and multiple attachment points for the included quilt. That quilt integrates with the sheet however you see fit; you can pin it down and cinch its hem to effectively create a traditional sleeping bag.
The MotoBed considers what happens in the morning too. Instead of struggling to stuff it into a tiny sack, all you have to do is roll it up, which also means it’s tucked and tidy the next time you decide to head out for the night.
The Motobed is currently funding on Kickstarter — it has already met its $20,000 goal — with plans to ship in March 2021.