THE lure of the open road, with the wind in his face accompanied by a throbbing Harley Davison soundtrack, proved too much for Mark Webley to ignore.
He'd turned his back on motorbikes decades earlier, but with his 50th on the horizon the married dad-of-one, decided it was now or never.
So he purchased a Harley Davison 883 Custom bike, and he's never been happier.
“It's a bit of a toy,” he admits. “I started off with bikes when I was 16, moving from Italian mopeds to a 250cc Suzuki by my early 20s. But I left them behind, as you do.
“The Harley is the only bike I've had in my midlife crises so far,” he joked. “It's OK, I'm not about to join a biker gang.”
Indeed, the Hell's Angels can rest easy as Mark takes life at a far more leisurely pace.
“I do go riding with a few friends. We're middle aged blokes who just go out for a pootle around.”
Mark, who runs a successful heating engineering business, is one of a growing number of middle aged guys who have opted to either get back onto or experience two wheels for the first time.
“I've always viewed my earlier years on bikes as me getting away with it,” he told the Daily Echo.
“Despite not riding for more than 20 years I thought, I've got a bit more money now, why not?
“I bought the Harley three years ago and it only has 7,000 miles on the clock. It only goes out on sunny days and I have no intention of riding it in the rain.
“I realise there are too many statistics about guys my age getting into bikes. Guys who rode in their 20s are getting these big 1,000cc sports bikes and the results can be horrendous.
“But that is why I opted for the Harley. It is nice, stylish, something I can take my daughter, Sophia, out on, rather than her being perched on the back of a sports bike.”
And Mark, who regularly takes 12-year-old Sophia down to Poole Quay bike meets, says his age translates to more experience of the roads.
“Riding is all about awareness - you have to be spatially aware all the time.
“When I ride I'm looking so far ahead; I'm looking at cars coming in, side roads, junctions. But I do see younger riders on these mopeds totally unaware of anything other than the 30ft in front of them.”
As well as Sophie, Mark takes wife Tracy out on trips around Dorset.
“It is a lovely way to see the countryside and I would recommend anyone else my age thinking of getting one to go for it.”
But the heating engineer joked: “Mind you, it isn't very practical for work - you'd struggle to get a boiler on the back.”
