Got into mountainbiking when I was in 7th grade, about '90ish. It was the new cool thing coming from the USofA. The first bike magazine in Germany came out in '89. I had always been a rather flimsy kid and bad at sports as I missed the early opportunitys to join the soccer team. Or handball (that was very popular in the little village I grew up in). The mountainbike was my chance to finally join the "cool club" I guess.
And I also liked it, because it had that wrenching aspect.
My ideal mountainbike was shaped (in my head) by reading the bike magazine - or rather memorizing them thorouly. Everything that was new was automatically cool. The parts and bikes I wasn't able to afford (that's basically all of them) had to be even cooler. I was riding hard up until I finished school. I was 21 at that time. 1997. I remember the last bike I was drooling over was a GT Thermoplast frame that was hanging at the bike store near my school.
Then I went to university, moved in with my girl, that's when I lost Interest. Life happended. I got a job, my first Kid. A house.
When life was stable again thats when I started to remember my ... well ... past dreams, I guess. I didn't even bother looking at the new stuff too much. The bikes I had lusted after were "suddenly" rather affordable. So I went for them. Had (still have) a lot of fun.
Buying, selling, tinkering. It's the stuff I already know. I don't have to learn too much new stuff. It's safe. It's relaxing. That's what I like, I guess.
It's not that I dont like the new stuff. I don't really know if I like it, because I never really tried. And I don't feel the need to do so.
I'm really tempted by the ebike-stuff though. But I'm holding out until they get cheaper, so I can afford a few and really take them apart and get wrenching.