As a mountain biker, I am morally opposed to rockin’ the skin tight bike shorts. Call me old fashioned (or old fashioned sensed) because I still prefer to wear baggy cargo shorts while cruising mountain singletrack, just like when I was a kid. So when Icebreaker sent out the ultra-tight Cadence bike shorts for testing, I was crestfallen. However, all baggy mountain bike shorts come with an integrated liner and chamois, so taking my high regard for Icebreaker’s quality merino wool products, I slipped my white chicken legs into the Cadence shorts.
The Icebreaker Cadence bike shorts are part of their GT Bike line, which is a technical range of shirts, jerseys and shorts for road and mountain biking. Each garment is made from merino wool, plus enhanced with Lycra for a slim, tight fit and fast dry time. As far the Cadence, they are made with 84% merino, and features double-knit, six panel construction for durability and what they say is a “sculpted, contoured fit.”
But pride (and embarrassment) still gets in the way of me putting on anything skin tight, so I took to wearing the Icebreaker Cadence shorts beneath a pair of cargo shorts. Immediately, I was really impressed at how comfortable they are. Merino wool has been making inroads against the ocean of synthetic materials at outdoor gear shops, and I’ve become a big fan of the way merino feels against the skin. The front of the shorts are wool, while the rear is lined with Lycra to give everything downstairs a snug fit.
The chamois is plush and cozy, so riding miles of trails on the saddle with these shorts was a pleasure. But the Cadence are technically road biking shorts, so the padding does seem to be a bit thinner. As a result, biking rocky, rough sections for long distances gave me “monkey butt” on more than one occasion.
What really impressed me about these shorts are the gripper strips on the hem. With shorts I’ve owned in the past, I find myself pulling the legs down all the time as they ride up while pedaling. Not so with the Icebreaker Cadence shorts. The hem stays put in these babies, and grip my legs tight so there’s minimal fiddling throughout the day.
Overall, the Icebreaker Cadence shorts worked really well as liners under more standard mountain biking shorts. The merino wool keeps temperatures regulated to the point that I forget I’m wearing wool, and the elastic wait and legs keep everything in place.
All this is great, but road cyclists will probably appreciate the Cadence shorts even more. There are several features to make the skinny-tire set smile, such as reflective details to safe night riding, flatlock stitching to avoid irritation, and the afore-mentioned Lycra seat for smooth saddle time.
So if you’re an insecure-about-his-image mountain biker like me, or a roadie who has no problem showing off everything they’ve got in tights that leave nothing to the imagination, then the Icebreaker Cadence bike shorts are probably the best money can buy. And at $160 per pair I do mean money.
Here’s the technical specs from Icebreaker:
84% merino/10% nylon/6% spandex
6 panels for articulation
Superior comfort chamois pad
Flatlock stitching
Gripper at hem
Reflective detail
Icebreaker logo and pip label
What is “monkey butt” exactly?
Ha! Good question. Monkey Butt is when your ass gets so sore and chafed from prolonged riding on the saddle that it turns red… like the butt of a baboon.