February 11 State Your Ride

Tom Strange with The Judge

By Jen Houghton
COPY EDITOR

You often see “Bobbi,” a candy-red 2009 Honda Metropolitan sitting pretty on Phelan Avenue, minding her own business. But don’t be fooled, this young scooter has already gained the nickname “The Judge.”

“She judges other cars very harshly,” said owner Tom Strange , a history major at City College. Only one week after he got her from Golden Gate Cycles in the Tenderloin, the scooter showed her true colors when a Ford F-150 pickup cut Strange off. “The Judge made me kick his mirror off,” he said. “She’s very aggressive.”

The scooter’s appearance matches her attitude, with a custom pin-up girl seat cover from www.customscooters.com and skull valve stem covers found on Ebay. Other custom adornments are a POW MIA “Never Forget” license plate holder in honor of Strange’s tour in Desert Shield and Desert Storm. He searched high and low for the holder, popular on four-wheeled vehicles, before finding the pint-sized scooter version on a specialty veteran’s Web Site.

“The Judge” even has a specialty horn that plays “The Dukes of Hazzard” theme song so loudly it can be heard all the way across campus. The horn, originally crafted for a full-size truck, saps battery power so fast that Strange will soon be outfitting the scooter with a new, larger battery just so he can use the horn.

The most custom accessory of all has yet to arrive: “The Judge” will soon be emblazoned on the scooter so that everyone will know her name.