Re:
Grateful for all the insights and points of view, wasn't expecting the thread to run to a couple of pages, let alone 11! (and counting....)
I too was closely involved with cycle shops and the industry for close on 20 years, and in that time probably saw so much low end crap in for repair, that when a 90's Kona or a nice GT turned up, and was a pleasure to work on, I found myself hankering for something 'retro', although at the beginning of my involvement with the industry, these bikes were almost current.
It's why I always loved the '96, '97 Konas with their fancy jungle graphics, so cool. But I've owned them now, worked on them at leisure in my own workshop, ridden them all over the place. Now things have moved on for me, I think the forum and retro scene in general has changed a lot in the four, five years I've been involved with it more seriously and on here. Sure, there will always be peaks and troughs in any hobby but maybe sometimes you kind of grow out of things, or subtly change your attitude towards a hobby as you get older and your priorities change.
Doesn't mean I will lose interest completely, obviously, but the last but one of my frames goes today, leaving me with one vaguely retro-ish frame and almost enough parts to make a hack bike in case I do get back into finding time for the occasional ride. The sense of relief is huge. And the very same day I sorted the sale of the last frame, the clamp on my work stand broke as I took the frame down. I'm trying to not see it as a sign........