To reach the level of success they’ve achieved today, many business professionals cast aside wild streaks from their younger years and traded in late nights for early-morning tee times. But one day the realization hits them that they’ve become entirely too practical. The only remedy, some discover, is a motorcycle.

The rough-and-tumble stereotype of motorcycle riders is fading fast as a different breed of riders takes to the roads: both men and women, many with advanced education and sizable incomes.

Sherry Driscoll, owner of Salon Vesta Day Spa in Ankeny, said her employees like to kid that she doesn’t look the part of a “motorcycle mama.” Her Harley-Davidson Low Rider was a gift from her husband, Tod.

Tod, a home builder, had ridden motorcycles most of his life, and after Sherry said she wanted to take motorcycle training classes, he surprised her by ordering her a Harley.

“At first, I thought, how am I going to handle this big thing, but it’s a lot easier than I thought it would be,” she said.

Driscoll’s initial shock was replaced by excitement when she took to the road on her own.

“Riding is thrilling,” she said. “You feel young. You just enjoy life and take in the scenery around you. It’s one of the few things that I do where I completely clear my head and forget about work.”

A Time magazine article called motorcycle riding “the acceptable bad-boy thing for middle-age men,” because many business professionals are waiting until their 40s or 50s to buy one. Their reasons vary, but often have to do with having more disposable income and free time once their children are grown. This was the case for Bryan Shiffler, owner of Shiffler Associates Architects, who started riding motorcycles seven years ago at age 49.

Shiffler said he has always been a “closet gearhead,” and had a fascination with technology. When he first laid his eyes on some Italian-made Ducati, known as the “Ferarri of motorcycles,” it was love at first sight.

“I thought they were the best motorcycles I’d seen in my life,” Shiffler said.

Shiffler had never owned a motorcycle before, and neither had his friend, Bob Furstenau, whom he also pursuaded to take the motorcycle rider’s instruction course at Des Moines Area Community College. Furstenau, the director of information technology publishing services for Meredith Corp., was 52 at the time.

“When Bryan said ‘Let’s do this,’ I said ‘Why not?’” Furstenau said.

After honing their riding skills on Japanese “crotch rockets,” the two bought their dream bikes; Shiffler, a Ducati; Furstenau, an MV Agusta, also an Italian machine.

“We thought that we should buy them right away, before we grew up and realized that there were better things to do with our money,” Shiffler said.

Furstenau said part of the appeal for him to buy a motorcycle was “having a new toy.” His MV Agusta F4 was the first of its kind in Iowa when he bought it for about $20,000 _ years ago, and one of only 200 in the United States at the time.

“My Agusta is a pretty enviable motorcycle,” Furstenau said. “We all have our toys. For some, it’s cars; for others, it’s motorcycles. I like both.”

Shiffler and Furstenau have both bought sporty BMW motorcycles more suitable to longer trips, such as the Wolf’s Head Rally they participated in this summer, a tour of the Lake Superior shoreline. On that trip, they traveled 2,200 miles in seven days.

“That far north, the traffic really thins out, and we would go for miles and miles without seeing a car,” Shiffler said. “The scenery along the north side of Lake Superior is second to none.”

They also take shorter trips regularly. They are part of a group of riders, businessmen and women, who meet Sunday mornings in West Des Moines to ride together to a place about an hour away to eat breakfast. About two dozen riders might turn out for a typical trip to a restaurant such as the Northside Café in Winterset, Shiffler said.

Ed Allen, president of A.J. Allen Co., a construction contracting company, used to ride with this Sunday morning group, but his regular Sunday morning golf outing now poses a conflict. Plus, his riding preferences have changed to favor smaller groups of about six to eight.

“In the beginning, it’s fun to roll into towns in large groups,” Allen said. “You feel like you’re in a scene out of an old movie, where the motorcycle gangs come to town. But then you realize that it’s not the most practical way to ride because it’s hard to keep track of everyone.”

Allen, 57, owned motorcycles off and on during his adult years, and eventually bought his first Harley-Davidson in his late 40s, after a friend of his bought one. Allen tried out six or seven styles of Harleys early on, finally deciding on a customized Electra Glide, a motorcycle well-suited to longer trips.

For each of the past several years, Allen has taken his motorcycle on 10- to 12-day trips across the country, sometimes through extreme weather. The riding conditions aren’t always perfect, Allen said, but that’s part of the adventure.

“Of course, I would prefer that it was normally good weather, but the bad weather does invite at the end of the day, when you’re all sitting at a bar, a feeling of satisfaction that you did something not everyone could do.”

Allen said there’s also a certain mystique about riding that allows you to escape from your day-to-day routine.

“When you’re out on the road, everyone is a motorcycle rider; you’re not an office manager or a doctor or an electrician,” Allen said. “You’re just a rider out there to enjoy the experience. Everyone’s equal.”