Jc higgins manifold bike
Surprisingly, googling "jc higgens bicycle with manifolds" shows that it is a real thing.




  The bike was sold by Sears in the last couple of months of 1950. The bike was discontinued because of the metal pipes on the tank got in the way of pedalling. The bike had a code number stamped into the frame 502-307, denoting this bike was built as a manifold tank bike and not a colour flow. I have talked to a number of bike experts and very few have ever heard or seen one of these bikes. The original colour was red and black.


From http://thecabe.com/forum/threads/j-c-higgins-manifold-tank-bike.13806/



Opinion: its definitely a cool bike and worth repairing.   If you don't want it, pass it on to someone who can do it justice.