S
Your ride, on your stream.
Live map, speed, power, heart rate and radar — overlaid on your IRL cycling stream.
In private beta
Android is a brand-new, early build — not on the Play Store yet, so it's a direct install. See "Installing on Android" below.
SlipstreamIRL is a phone app for cyclists who stream. It takes your
location and your bike sensors and turns them into overlays you drop straight into
OBS — a moving map that follows you, and a bike-computer readout beside it.
It runs in your pocket with the screen off, so your phone is a sensor hub
rather than something you have to babysit mid-ride.
What your viewers see
- A live map that rotates the way you're heading, with your route drawn behind you.
- Speed, distance, power, cadence and heart rate — coloured by how hard you're working.
- Wind direction on the map, so the headwind you're complaining about is visible.
- Rear radar — approaching cars, if you ride with a Garmin Varia.
What it does for you
- Reads your chat aloud through a headset, so you can talk to people without looking down.
- Starts and ends your stream from chat commands, so you're not stopping to fiddle with a laptop.
- Dictate your ride plan before you set off and it becomes your stream title.
- Watches your encoder's bitrate so you can see connection trouble coming.
- Hides your location near home — set a radius and the map shows a question mark instead.
What you'll need
Essential
- An iPhone or Android phone and a Twitch account.
- OBS, with a browser source for each overlay you want.
- Some way to stream from the road — most people use a BELABOX or similar.
Optional, but this is where it gets good
- A power meter and a heart-rate strap — any standard Bluetooth ones.
- A Garmin Varia radar for the approaching-traffic strip.
- A Bluetooth headset to hear your chat.
Getting started
- Install the app — iOS via TestFlight, Android by downloading the APK — then sign in with Twitch. That's the only account you need.
- Copy your overlay links from the app and paste them into OBS as browser sources.
- Pair your sensors if you have them — the app finds them and reconnects on its own if one drops out.
- Ride. Lock your phone and put it in your pocket; everything keeps running.
Installing on Android
The Android build is brand new and not on the Play Store yet, so your phone
installs it directly from the file instead of an app store:
- Download the APK above, on your phone.
- Tap the downloaded file. Android will warn you about installing from
outside the Play Store — tap through to allow it for this file (usually
"Install anyway" or a one-time "Allow from this source" toggle).
- Open the app and sign in with Twitch, same as iOS.
It's an early build — if something looks off, let me know on
Discord.
Where the overlays come from
Your phone sends its data to a small server called a relay, which is what
OBS actually connects to. You have two ways to get one:
- Hosted — sign in and it's handled for you. Nothing to set up, nothing to run.
- Self-hosted — the relay is
open source and
free to run yourself, if you'd rather own it end to end.
SlipstreamIRL is in private beta and not yet publicly available. If you're an IRL
cyclist who streams and you'd like to try it, come and find me on
Discord.