[Images provided by Tom Wall]

Love it, hate it, maybe a bit of both, or neither. There’s little doubt that YouTube has become something of a phenomenon, one often laden in hope, dreams, yet sprinkled with myth, and often laced with half-truths and controversy. 

• The Fabio Wibmer interview - living life on, and over the edge
• The Charlie Aldridge interview - UK's newest Olympic hope
• Rising from the Dust - the Lachlan Morton interview

It’s hard to believe that YouTube has only been around for 20 years, and yet, much like a reality TV show appearance and stardom, it’s become one of the most popular career path dreams for many a youngster, often drawn in to the dreamy lifestyles and crocks of gold it promises at the click of the red button on your iPhone.

However, as with so many things, the truth is far from the reality of how it actually works, and very few aspiring YouTubers ever get further than making a few disclosing or illusional videos before even getting close to the ever-shifting promise of monetisation.
On the flip side, some, particularly the early adopters, have indeed struck gold on the platform – or at least that’s what they tell us, and that is often what draws in their watch time hours, and the AdSense (or should that be NonSense?) returns that do follow.

We have contacted a few of the major cycling YouTubers of late, without a single reply. Plus, with this insight, we really didn’t want to jump on the bandwagon of trading lottery like small screen dreams, and thought it far more appropriate and relatable to bring you the story of regular working Yorkshire lad, Tom Wall. 

2025 tom wall 2.jpg, by Steve Thomas

Tom’s Cycling366 channel is based on bikepacking, mostly off-road and gravel, with a fair amount of flat bar content too. The channel is relatively small, with 16.7k subscribers, yet it is generally of a higher production value, and far more down-to-earth and less opinionated than some more popular channels, so do check it out. 

As for whether or not, or how much you can trust YouTube cycling reviews and sponsorships, that’s a whole other story and a firepit to step into – maybe it’s one for another day (if we dare tread there).

ORCC: How, why, and with what intent did your YouTube life start out?

Tom Wall: I had always wanted to make cycling and bikepacking tour videos, but I had never had any experience or confidence to do so. I had made some as a student in 2013 but never uploaded them, which I regret not doing now. I often think of how big the channel could have been now if I'd have started then. 

During Covid times, I had a lot of time off work and had the chance to play around with a GoPro and a mini drone that I'd bought, and to learn the basics. I was doing a charity challenge for Alzheimer’s Research UK that year, riding at least 10 miles every day for the year (hence the YouTube name Cycling366 as it was a leap year), and I wanted to make a video showing what I was doing to try and help with fundraising. But secretly, I also wanted to test the water with this video and see what people would say about it before I committed to making any more. The video was well received by my friends and family, so that gave me the green light to continue making them.

ORCC: How different is the reality of what people see in your films to what really goes on - the struggles, the flops, the work, the risks, and how have you found a balance between that, what you want to show, and what people want to see?

TW: I keep things pretty real; I generally show most of what happens on my bikepacking adventures, and don't try to paint a picture through rose-tinted spectacles.

The one thing most people don't see, though, is the amount of extra work and time needed to make the films. I stop riding a lot during my adventures to set up the camera on a tripod, and then ride past, sometimes multiple times if the shot isn't right, and then have to repack everything into my panniers before continuing the ride. That can be pretty exhausting, and it takes you out of your rhythm if you're doing long-distance rides. I also do the same for drone shots and pieces to camera where needed, all of which slows me down massively. 

2025 tom wall 4.jpg, by Steve Thomas

The trick is trying to keep the mileage lower than I would without the camera stuff, but I do often feel I have to justify lower mileage to viewers who expect me to do really tough rides each day. Furthermore, the editing for me takes a long time. I'm obsessed with trying to make the films as cinematic as possible, which takes a lot of effort, but I do really enjoy piecing together the adventure film and seeing it come to life. 

In terms of risks, I do tend to push myself slightly too much in dangerous conditions because I feel I need to make the film as interesting to the viewers as possible, however, I do often have to change plans!

ORCC: With the ever-changing YouTube terms, with more and more people taking to it, how viable is it as a career? What kind of numbers do you need to hit to even cover the basics, and make it fully sustainable?

TW: I think YouTube alone is getting harder to make a career of. You have to be really creative and have well-planned and well-thought-out videos to get any meaningful traction now. You have to commit to a schedule and find the time around your current life to stick at it, often for years before it materialises into a net-positive income. 

The videos cost a lot of money to make initially, as you'll need a camera and editing equipment if you haven't already got it, and going out to interesting places for footage and stories costs a lot as well.

2025 tom wall 5.jpg, by Steve Thomas

It's doable, though, and I’ve noticed a huge uplift in brands wanting to use my platform to talk about their products since I went over the 10,000-subscriber mark. This is much more lucrative than the ad revenue is currently.

I only work with brands I actually like or would buy from anyway, as it's difficult to get excited about stuff you don't actually like, so it's a win-win for us both. If you're wanting to live off the ad revenue, I'd wager you'd need at least 100k views per video (weekly) to be comfortable, but with brand deals, one good one a month could do it.

ORCC: In terms of workload, gear etc, what do you carry on trips? How much time goes into editing and production, and what have been the most important learnings on this?

TW: I focus on video and audio quality, so that naturally means I take more than most people. I use a mix of mirrorless cinema cameras, high-end drones and microphones, as well as some action cameras for b-roll, so my bike can get very heavy - sometimes more than 50-60kg.

You definitely don't need to go overboard like me, but I hang my hat on this sort of quality, and it has become what my audience expects, so I've had to learn to adapt to the difficulty of lugging a heavy bike over tough terrain.

2025 tom wall 3.jpg, by Steve Thomas

I spend a lot of time filming and editing, but my biggest learning over the last few years has been focussing on planning more. I plan what sort of shots I want to get beforehand, and what I expect the story to be, then try to remember to get as much variety as possible, so the films don't have lots of the same sorts of shots.

ORCC: How much does making the films impact your riding experience, the adventure, and are there times you just want to go off and do it without the cameras, etc?

TW: Yes, definitely. I've not done a proper bikepacking trip without a camera for five years or more now. I often look at riders doing the Atlas Mountain Race on minimal rigs and wish I could have more time to just do that and have no agenda or deadlines to stick to. 
Filming adventures when you're trying to stand out consistently against other YouTubers can be quite stressful, and just being free to do what I want without the added pressure of creating something good would be lovely. 

I'm limited with time I can get off for bikepacking, so I try to optimise my free time for the films I make. As a result, I don't have many days to spare for the pure fun of it. Don't get me wrong, I still love my adventures, but I'd like to do a couple of them a year where I can just properly switch off.

ORCC: Watch numbers vs followers, etc. In your experience, how do the stats directly correlate? Which are most important in the longer term, and has growth hit plateaus at times?

TW: Both are important. Views ultimately equal revenue, so you could have 1k subscribers and a million views and be doing better than someone with 20k subscribers with half a million views, but it depends on what you're wanting to achieve. In theory, the more subscribers you have, the more views you should get for each video, but nowadays, the YouTube algorithm is king, and subscribers play less of a role. 

A video can pop off even if you don't have many subscribers, and equally, a channel with a large subscriber base can still publish videos that flop, due to the way YouTube shows videos to the audience. Brands are still keen to see subscribers, though, as it shows a level of trust an audience has in the creator, which is appealing to potential sponsors.

For me personally, growth comes in waves, but I get a fairly consistent number of views and subscribers each month. It's easy to beat yourself up about lack of growth on a month-by-month basis, but I've got much better at not getting so worked up about this. I try to look back at things holistically - I keep a list of my subscriber count on my phone, for each time I published a bikepacking film, and that can be really reassuring when I look back and see some big increases.

• Cycling366

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