Another new personal best. Yet another "longest ride".
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Took advantage of this long ride to do errands, as well. Stopped at the hardware, at the library, and picked up my dinner at Subway.
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My dad and step-mom bought ours at they same time they bought their own. Same bike. We decked ours out with a front basket, rear double baskets and saddlebags strapped to the outside of those. I hung two 6-volt batteries from the frame to power standard truck lights and had a generator-run headlight. The bike weighs about 70lbs to begin with, but we'd take it shopping and come home with absolutely every inch of storage space filled (and sometimes things strapped on with bungie cords). Unfortunately, the very end of our trip involved a really steep hill - stand up and watch the speedometer drop to 2 mph.
When we moved to PA 12 or so years ago, it had to sit outside because we didn't have a garage or a shed. It got a little rusty. My dad wasn't using his anymore so he gave us that one. I still have ours as a backup for parts, but theirs was garage kept (and is now as well). We occasionally take it down to a local pub and for a long time it was a unique sight. In the last two or three years I've seen three others in the vicinity of our neighborhood - including one at a neighbor's just down the street that their kids ride. That one looks a WHOLE lot lighter than ours.
And hey, we rode it in the snow in NH. No big deal, especially since it has a rear drum brake (not kidding). My single has mountain bike tires so that's not an issue, but my wife's racing bike has 1 1/4" high pressure tires and isn't really fit for such conditions, but it does fine in the rain. Speaking or which, why the hell don't bikes come with fenders anymore? Some of the retro single-speed bikes do, but anything with gears is without. 
Instead of a fender in the back, we stuck a 4" x 14" x 1/8" piece of plexiglas under the springy clamp on the rear over-the-wheel rack. I thought it would be best for him not to arrive at school with a muddy stripe up the rear of his pants... 
He usually rides a fixie that he and his dad put together. They are always checking Freecycle and Craigslist for bikes and parts, and have put together several bikes for my son's friends, too.
I'd like to try our friend's tandem, but it's a little too high-end for me. My BIL & SIL had one, but I think they sold it.
Someday we'll try one. We always ride our bikes together to things going on at the high school.
You should see the bike my husband just brought home for me- ha! He and our son took off the skip-tooth chain, but it's a heavy duty Hawthorne (Montgomery-Ward)pre-1955, kind of like a girl's version of this one, except older-
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I saw something on the internet about people riding fat tire bikes in the snow. Were you living in NH before you moved to PA? Years ago I lived in VT and MA. I miss having four seasons.
