A HAMPSHIRE man was left speechless when he received the birthday surprise of a lifetime.

When Paul Webber entered the Hampshire Motorcycles Centre on Shirley Road, Southampton, he was not expecting to see his dream come true.

He had sold his much-loved customised Kawasaki Z1000 motorbike in 1981 to pay for his honeymoon in Paris with his wife Karen.

After the wedding he started buying different pieces of a motorbike with the intention of having one day a Pink Floyd-themed customised Kawasaki Z1000.

However, all the pieces he bought were left in boxes for years.

But his wife Karen, 57, housewife, from Eastleigh, surprised him on his 60th birthday on October 27 with the Pink Floyd-themed customised Kawasaki Z1000 he had dreamed of.

The fire and safety officer was taken to the garage in Shirley and when he walked in he found his two children, three grandchildren, friends and his long-awaited motorbike.

He said: “They completely caught me out. I have no words. I didn’t have any idea of this. It has been a dream for many years and I have never had the feeling it would get there and now it’s even better than I could ever imagine. I can’t wait to ride it with Karen as we used to do 36 years ago.”

Karen, a former Eastleigh College student and Paul, a former police cadet, met at the ice rink in Southampton in 1978. They married in Chandler’s Ford three years later.

Karen said she wanted to thank Paul for the love shared in the past 39 years and left him speechless on his 60th birthday.

She added: “It was emotional. I was shaking. I’m over the moon because I made him happy and I know that because it’s the first time we left him speechless, I have never seen him speechless before. He totally lost his words. It’s a dream coming true. He can now ride his bike again after decades.”

It was a TV show called Car SOS to inspire Karen who brought all the pieces Paul bought to the garage in Shirley last July.

In three months Ashurst artist Colin McKay painted some of the most iconic Pink Floyd artworks, including the cover of the LP The Dark Side of the Moon on the motorbike while Rob Heatley, a mechanic at Hampshire Motorcycles, put the pieces together.

Gary Judd, business manager at the garage, said: “It came in boxes and rusty frames but we are exceptionally happy with how the bike has come out and we are delighted that Paul is so happy.”