Some old Sears bicycle I picked up from a flea market. I am just looking for some information. Is it possible to tell when it was made? Is this bicycle worth renovating? Are 3 speeds like this hard to convert to fixie single speeds? It has a great deal of rust over everything which can rust, the brakes don't function correctly, shifting is tricky, and the rear rim appears slightly bent when spun.

Thanks for any help ^_^

Measure the distance from the ground to the top of the top bar for me. Find a date on it, probably around 78-80. Then mail that POS to me. It looks exactly like mine when I was a kid. I will restore it and love it.

I am serious. Its exactly what I have been looking for.

Would appear to be 29", possibly 28". Stamp reads "HC7153111", so would this be a '71?

Sears three speed should have a date code on the rear hub. In between the spokes you will see the decription of the hub and a 2 digit date code.

^-- Sears 3 speed hubs have sturmey archer insides (in that you can swap in sturmey archer spare parts) but they're not made by sturmey archer (presumably they just licensed the design from them) and have a different shell. I believe the shell just has "Sears" and usually "Made in Australia" or whever Sears' subcontractor for that hub happened to be.

i have 2 black & white ones close to that...a lot less rust on mine!
One is being made into an "around-town-get-groceries-do whatever" bike for a friend...mine rides pretty ok.