Belgium to the Atlantic
What started as a test of whether my streaming setup could actually work from a bike turned into a nine-day, 720 km ride from Belgium to the Atlantic coast of France.
The idea was simple: instead of testing everything individually at home, load the bike, start riding and see what survived.
The Trip
I set out from Belgium aiming for roughly 100 km per day, carrying the equipment needed to livestream while riding alongside a basic bikepacking setup. Over the course of the trip, I covered 719.6 km across nine days, livestreaming for more than 36 hours along the way. The trip became a real-world test for several parts of the setup: battery life, mobile connectivity, navigation, cable management, and simply how practical it was to carry and use everything for multiple days in a row.
Some things worked better than expected. A single 25,000 mAh power bank could generally handle a full day of streaming, and the setup proved capable of running for hours at a time without needing much attention. Connectivity was less predictable. Towns generally provided good coverage, while forests, valleys and more rural sections resulted in bitrate drops and occasional disconnects. Interestingly, entering and leaving towns also caused quite a few interruptions as the connection moved between towers.
Then there were the less technical problems. A strap on my saddlebag snapped during the trip and was temporarily repaired with zip ties. Rough roads exposed weaknesses in cable connections, and keeping electronics cool inside the streaming backpack became another problem to solve.
Those were exactly the kinds of things I wanted the trip to uncover.
What I Learned
By the time I reached the Atlantic, the biggest question had been answered: streaming a multi-day bikepacking trip works.
The setup isn't finished, though.
The trip highlighted the need for better cable retention, improved heat management, more reliable network redundancy, and enough battery capacity to continue streaming from camp after spending most of the day on the bike.
More importantly, it gave me actual data and experience to work from rather than assumptions made at home.
The next version of the setup can now be built around problems that happened on the road.
What's Next?
The Atlantic wasn't really the destination of this project. It was a test. There are longer rides I want to take, more places I want to document, and a lot of improvements still to make to the bike and streaming setup.
For now, though, 720 km and more than 36 hours live on the road proved that the idea works.
The next question is how far I can take it.