Hercules Ladies Road Bike
 

Can anyone help me identify this bike?

I picked it up from a neighbor of mine with the thought of restoring it for my mom and wondering whether its worth it (my first restore). Anyone familiar with the rear transmission mechanism? Looks like it has internal gear but I'm not sure if those can be rebuilt easily?

Onto the photos:

http://imgur.com/a/kPYYK

Thanks!

It's a 3 speed hub. Probably doesn't need to be rebuilt. I've never actually run across one that has.

^ Thanks I found some documentation on those 3 speeds. Looks like that will be easy to work. Do you have any ideas what year its from or the model?

It looks to be a early 50's model from the stylized chain ring. You should be able to find a date code on the rear hub that should tell you about when the bike was made there fairly easy to make out.

I have a 1960 model that has the same chain ring on the cranks.

It's real hard to date this by just pic post war British 3 speeds didn't change a lot from the late 40's to early 70's. Most of the manufactuers stopped using the stylized branded chainrings by the late 50's.

It has pre-raleigh drop outs, so it's 1959/1960 at the latest.

Raleigh continued to make some of the styled chain rings for decades after they bought everybody up in the late 50s. Rudge in particular comes to mind. Most of them got the standard three spoke raleigh chainwheel in the 1960s though.
http://i.ebayimg.com/t/VINTAGE-BICYC...NPg~~60_35.JPG

I tried checking the rear hub but its soo crusted up that I will have to clean it up a bit before I can make anything out.