Haha I think you made a mistake by asking this question as I can talk for ages about this
But I'm trying to cut it as short as I can.
So I got this bike second hand just a bit more than a year ago at 210euro. (you can find older posts of mine in this forum dating around march 2016 asking for opinions on different bikes I was considering back then).
This was my very first bike and I came from a 0 experience in biking world. Like a research nerd I am I did a lot of research before buying but I came to the conclusion that it was worth pretty much nothing as I had a very little amount of money to play with so I couldn't get anything decent at that money. So I decided to concentrate on a nice frame and upgrade slowly as time passes by. So pretty much the reason I got this is cos the frame looked nice! When I got it it was pretty much untouched with all stock OEM parts.
If you're curious about the parts you can look at this catalog here and find SE1800 version (mine is black and yellow)
http://www.ghost-bikes.com/fileadmin...atalog2012.pdf
It even had the original tires when I got it and pretty much in good condition so whether they were never changed or the previous owner got exactly the same ones remains a mistery
Till now I've changed:
1. The brakes (bought a pair of Shimano Hydros from a friend of mine.
2. The Pedals (NukeProof Neutron EVO) from crc.
3. Converted it to a 1x9 drivetrain (bought a cheap 17$ unbranded narrow/wide chainring from ebay) and removed the front shifter and derailleur.
4. Changed the grips as the original ones had very little grip and gave me a hard time sometimes.
So now I was looking to buy a nice Fox Talas shocks (2010 version I think it was. second hand from a local LBS) but my crankset seems to be near the end of its life so considering money is always an issue crankset takes priority now. Also my philosophy is when smth brakes replace it with smth better so I don't want to just replace the BB (which would have been a lot cheaper). This is why I'm looking for a Hollowtech II or Sram GXP system. (have also looked at FSA and RACE FACE alternatives but damn things are really expensive).
Worth to mention as this is my only bike and it is a pretty much all in one. I commute around 15-20 km a day with this. I go on road tours, uphills, downhills (not rough ones), technical climbs ect.. I also took part on a XC race once
I've lost a lot of weight, made countless friends and few close ones since I've gotten into this "business". At least once a week we make a trip somewhere. Discover new places, new trails and stuff like that. Sometimes just gather on a cafe shop and discuss about bikes, modifications, upgrades, PRO races ect... So my life has changed a lot for good since I got into mtbing
Getting back to your question you can see from the above that I'm really attached to my Ghost cos I associate it with everything I've mentioned so far.
I've ridden lots of my friends bikes (also some really expensive ones) and in none of them I was a comfy as I am on my Ghost but that's partly to the setup as I couldn't setup em the way I liked just for a short test and partly cos I don't think I can be very objective on this matter. The only exception was a 27.5 KTM which I immediately loved and told to my self my next bike is defo going to be 27.5! I've also tried a few 29ers but they felt weird (I guess not my type)
Well pretty much this was it
