Beautiful bike. Original seat, frame, and chainguard. is what makes the Sunset Orange Krate. Same goes for the Ghost and Cotton. Give me an original seat, and original paint/screen frame and chainguard for any of these 3 bikes and it is not difficult to then build an original bike, even with the correct dated parts (except tires which I do not bother dating). No painted forks to worry about on these bikes. Then is it even an original bike, that is a question to ask yourself, and maybe debated at another time. Easy to do this because the parts can be expensive but are not color sensitive, and generally available.. This bike has a good original paint guard, and is a great bike even without the seat, and has the disc brake which the cotton and ghost do not have unless a rare 1971 year end bike. Good question, what would you prefer, this bike without the original seat but with the original guard as shown, or if it had the original seat, but a repainted/screened guard. Both parts (original seat and guards) are tough to find.
It always amazes me when someone asks for a value here on something like this, people are hesitant to throw out a dollar amount which I do understand. Some people are hesitant to post things here unless it is something they disagree with or find fault with or to state something negative. Also it is easier to state what part is correct or what year a bike might be that can be backed up with facts, opinions of value are more tricky, but are just that opinions only. As long as you state it is your opinion only, and it is the market that decides what the value of this bike is as long as the bike has been well exposed to the market and potential buyer's for this type of bike. That said, my opinion for this bike as it sits from looking at the photos would be approximately $3300-$3800. That number is net to the seller after subtracting any fees that might occur if they used something like Ebay or an auction company. For what it might be worth my opinion is based on selling 14 Five Speed Krates the past 18 months. All sales were person to person sales, no Ebay or auction fees. Of the 14 Krates, 4 had disc brakes, no Ghosts, Cotton's or Sunset or 1968 bikes were sold. The 4 disc brake bikes all had fair to good/decent original paint, 2 had original seats, 2 had recovered seats. I got $2400-$2900 each for the 4 disc brake bikes. Original paint apple, pea. lemon, and orange original seats and guards do come up for sale. In my opinion again here, an original one of these 4 color/type seats seats not counting the 1968 seats, a nice original seat, not mint, maybe with some fade on the seat or stripe, no large cuts, maybe a nick or two would cost you in the $400-$500 range and the main thing is that they do come up for sale. The sunset, cotton, and ghost seats in similar shape you can only hope one comes up for sale each year or so, and that seat would be double or more than twice the $400-$500 for the other 4 seats in my opinion, so maybe $800 or more for a nice used Sunset seat. Original 68 seats are the toughest in my opinion, good luck with finding those. Of course you might be lucky to run across one at a swap or someplace where the person selling is not aware of the difference between a sunset or non sunset orange seat. I will also say this, when these seats and paint on these orange bikes wear, they can change color over the past 50 years depending on how they wear, were exposed to the elements, the color does change. I have a difficult time sometimes telling the difference between a Kool Orange and A Sunset Orange seat color and guard paint color when it is off a bike and has been exposed and worn. Now again all this is just my opinion only, agree or disagree it is all good as long as it is done in a nice way, or not even a nice way, just no real inappropriate responses. Oh yea, one more thing, I am a great one for getting off track at times. Again my opinion only, I have had a lot of people say a person does not have a complete collection of Krates unless you have a Sunset Orange Krate. My reply has always been is that Schwinn never renamed it the Sunset Orange Krate, and that the guard still said Orange Krate in 1973, catalog still said Orange Krate, I state that Schwinn made 6 different Krates in the 60-70's, Pea, Lemon, Orange, Apple, Ghost, and Cotton. Now if you were to say I have every color Krate but do not have a Sunset bike, that would be something that could be more easily debated.
