Unbelieveably there are riders who have cycled almost every one of our Odysseys. It is an amazing achievement which has taken many riders past the 10,000km mark with Bike Odyssey – whether pedalling Hannibal through Italy or Che across Patagonia. We want to say congratualtons and thank you! It’s a milestone worth marking amd we are doing so with something we’re genuinely proud of: a jacket we spent years trying to get right.
The problem we were trying to solve:
Anyone who has finished a long ride knows the feeling. You’re tired. You feel satisfied but exposed and worn from a long ride. You shower and all you want is something to put on that feels right immediately: comfortable, warm without being hot, breathable, light, soft against skin that’s had enough for one day.
That’s a deceptively long list of requirements, and we worked through a lot of garments trying to satisfy it. On top of the post-ride brief, we also wanted something built for travel – compact, genuinely multi-purpose, well made enough to earn its place in a packed bag trip after trip. And because it matters to us, it had to be made locally and sustainably, not just marketed that way.
Why Icebreaker
Icebreaker has spent its whole identity on a single argument: that natural fibres can outperform synthetics in comfort and versatility, not just match them. The company works directly with merino farmers across New Zealand and Australia, with a real focus on fibre quality, traceability, and animal welfare – not just a line in a sustainability report.
Merino wool itself does a lot of the work here. It’s softer against the skin than most people expect, naturally temperature-regulating, moisture-wicking, odour-resistant, breathable, and biodegradable at the end of its life. If you’re going to build a garment around one fibre, merino from a producer that treats it this seriously is about as good as it gets.
The Bike Odyssey Descender
Our Bike Odyssey Icebreaker Descender jackets take that merino and blend it with Tencel – a fibre made from eucalyptus pulp – because after a lot of trial and error, that combination was the one that felt best – it is lovely. It has the warmth and temperature regulation of merino with a softness and drape that made it the clear winner in our testing.
One last detail:
The X̄ on the jacket – an X with a line over it – is the Roman numeral for 10,000. A small mark for a long way ridden!
If you’ve just crossed 10,000km with us, congratulations this one’s for you. Check out the Rider’s table here.
And don’t worry I made Isi give hers back after the photoshoot…she has a few thousand kms to go! And guides only get 1/2 kms…. after all they drive half the time!
