Sears middleweight help

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Any info on this beauty would be great. I mostly deal with schwinns. Check out those monster truck tires [emoji41]



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Nice bike! Rims aren't the same, looks like the rear wheel was replaced at some point. And the bike looks like mid 60's going by the rear reflector.

Those Murray made Sears branded bikes may be ID'ed by the serial number. Starting in 64, their J C Higgins brand name was replaced by "Sears", so it is for sure made after 1963.

From some research, I don't know if this is the same for all Sears bikes.
"The first number after the 502 suffix indicates the year. 4 = 1964, most Murray built bikes of this era can be I.D. like this." The next 4 digits are the model number from the Sears catalog.

Also, there may be original batteries in the tank, with a date code on them.

From the 64 catalog:
64-spring-pg-856_crop-jpg.281953
 
Nice bike! Rims aren't the same, looks like the rear wheel was replaced at some point. And the bike looks like mid 60's going by the rear reflector.

Those Murray made Sears branded bikes may be ID'ed by the serial number. Starting in 64, their J C Higgins brand name was replaced by "Sears", so it is for sure made after 1963.

From some research, I don't know if this is the same for all Sears bikes.
"The first number after the 502 suffix indicates the year. 4 = 1964, most Murray built bikes of this era can be I.D. like this." The next 4 digits are the model number from the Sears catalog.

Also, there may be original batteries in the tank, with a date code on them.

From the 64 catalog:
64-spring-pg-856_crop-jpg.281953

Thanks for the info! I’ll be looking for the correct rear rim. The batteries were newer.
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The number on the drop-out might be a Murray number; Sears often put theirs under the bottom bracket, (unless 1965 was the time that they started moving things). However, the 0246202 part would look just right if it started with #5.
Sears model numbers ending in 2's (and 3's) may be from 1966-1968, and note that a model 46202 would only be 1-off the older catalog pictured (46201 N).

Frame details also look later 1960's, because the cantilevers attach widely at the right and left sides of the down tube; earlier models had cantilevers attach narrowly to the back/top of the down tube (shown in post #3).

Nice tires, look like some Walmart "Bell" Cheng Sing (CST) 1.95" mountain bike tires I purchased while travelling for work, (Walmart is almost illegal in my city, county, state). I stuffed them into my suitcase, (planned to use them on my 95 beach cruiser), and got me interested in bicycles once again.
 
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I don't dispute the age of this bike--1964 looks and sounds about right. However, I don't believe one can rely on the numerical prefix to confirm that date. I compared Wildcat's ad to similar listings in the '66 and '68 Wishbook, and the model numbers ALL begin with four.
 
The 6-digit serial number (sequence part) is 817,135 unique to that bike.
Maybe that set has the "first" number, 8 specifying the year of 1968?

That logic could make my Murray a 1962 (last guessed it was a 63).
Such a theory would work with production under 100,000 per year.
 
I'm still hunting for an answer.
The 64 catalog I posted above shows 46201 as part of the model #, but the 64 Christmas catalog shows 46002, yours has 46202. If I had all the catalogs I could try to make sense of it all. The 68 catalog shows 46003.
68 catalog:
2015-10-02-004.jpg


64 Christmas catalog:
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