My new little toy is the PillowBike. I got this bike from my pal Tony Licuanan when he foolishly decided that he had "too many bikes". We named the bike after the little head pillow. My wife Christine summed this bike up best when she said "Most of your bikes feel like you are sitting on the couch, this one feels like you are in bed!"

The PillowBike has a 16" (349) front wheel and a 20" (406) rear wheel. The PillowBike has a wheelbase of 40" and a seat height of 16". The riding position is much lower and more laid back than my Rans Rocket.

Did I mention that this bike is fast? It is light and nimble and aerodynamically very slippery. This frame was originally raced by John Williams at Yreka a few years ago, but he rode it with dual 20 inch wheels and got the bike up to 39 mph there. When Tony got the frame he built up a 16 inch wheel and fork for the bike which made it a bit lower. Tony rode this bike on the 1997 Seattle To Portland ride. Tony began the ride with a way too experimental fairing on the bike which made it less of a bike and more of an uncontrolled ultralight aircraft. After a couple of unscheduled lift-offs, Tony decided to continue the ride unfaired.

When I got the PillowBike from Tony, it was undergeared (Tony had moved his killer gears onto another bike). I first experimented with an idler and various chainrings (see the picture at the top of this page) but I've now settled on 47 and 58 tooth crankset matched with a Sachs 3*7 hub with an 11 through 28 tooth freewheel. This gives the PillowBike a range of 24 through 143 gear inches!

Another change I made to the bike was to add a small coroplast tailbox. Tony says that this looks like half a hatbox. I made it from recycled coroplast campaign signs and nylon zip-ties. The tailbox has a rounded back unlike my pointy=backed Rocket tailbox. But the general principle of simple areodynamic storage remains. This box is big enough to hold my toolpouch, rain clothes, bike lock and snacks.