Critics’ Forum
Visual Arts
And the Beat Goes on: Predator Cycling and the Abbot Kinney Cultural
Scene
By Tamar Sinanian and Taleen Tertzakian
A red wooden picket fence greets passers-by on Venice Beach’s famous
Abbot Kinney Boulevard, inviting them to enter the casual and
friendly atmosphere of the Predator Cycling bicycle showroom. Just
beyond the fence is a courtyard, speckled with red tables with white
umbrellas, where Angelenos, including both culture and bike
enthusiasts, gather throughout the week for seminars, film viewings,
art exhibits, drinks, music, and just to hang out.
Predator Cycling, "Predator" for short, established by 23 year old
Aram Goganian, exudes the community-oriented character of the street
it adorns. Much as on a typical European street, store owners and
patrons of Abbot Kinney intermingle each day at various cafes and
bars, and throughout the month at various "meet and greet" events
organized by the community.
One such event is First Fridays, which takes place on the first
Friday of each month during the summer months and has recently been
extended to the first Friday of every month. During these evening
events, participating businesses in the community open their doors to
the public, offering drinks and music in a casual party-like
atmosphere. A glass of wine in hand, passers-by hop from business to
business, meeting and greeting. And Predator cycling is at the center
of all the activity, helping sponsor the event and always attracting
a sizable crowd of its own.
Abbot Kinney Boulevard, which is estimated to bring in more than 80%
of Venice’s revenue, is composed of a variety of small, unique
businesses that make every effort to stand out. This strength of
identity and character stems from a rich, and somewhat sordid, past.
Mr. Abbot Kinney, the wealthy tobacco mogul after whom the street is
named, set out in the 1890s to create a "Venice of America". He
sought to turn the land south of Ocean Park through the Del Rey
peninsula into a resort town reminiscent of Venice, Italy by
embellishing it with canals, gondola rides, amusement piers, and
various other entertainments.
But a number of set-backs over the next few decades jeopardized Mr.
Kinney’s plans. In the 1920s, the city of Los Angeles annexed Venice
and sought to rid the town of its honky-tonk atmosphere. By 1930, oil
was discovered on the peninsula, leading to pollution of the
residential and beach areas. The street and pier were closed for part
of the day during the mid-1940’s, due to government-imposed curfews
during the Second World War.
By the 1950s, Venice was in a state of decay and a far cry from Mr.
Kinney’s vision. However, in the 1960s, the "Beats," a group of
American writers who were known for their rejection of mainstream
American values, their creativity and their non-conformist
perspective, moved into the Venice area. They brought with them their
Bohemian lifestyle, much of it revolving around art and poetry and
meetings in coffee houses. It is precisely this bohemian and artsy
energy that helped revamp Venice and attracted Aram to set up shop on
Abbot Kinney Blvd, serving the interests of its cultural as well as
cycling aficionados.
A native of nearby Santa Monica, Aram’s interest in bikes started
early. He began racing bikes in local and state racing tournaments
at the age of twelve. Fed up with what he describes as "inefficient"
bikes available in the market, he started designing his own racing
bikes. According to Aram, "bikes weren’t being built by bike
designers, but by marketing departments, as bike companies paid more
attention to colors and aesthetics than to design and ride. They were
not built by racers for racers. Rather, they were built for looks and
sales." By 2000, Aram decided to take matters into his own hands and
launched Predator Cycling, working from home. He reengineered bikes
to be more efficient, by collaborating with top designers around the
world, who shared their research with him. He raced bikes he designed
and started beating people that he wasn’t supposed to beat and
winning races he wasn’t supposed to win.
Aram attributes his wins to the highly personalized fit of Predator
bikes. According to Aram, Predator is one of the few companies that
conduct in-house analysis and testing of all bikes, backing each
model with its own particular research and data. Although Predator
has made primarily professional racing bikes for the first eight
years of its existence, the company has more recently begun building
bikes for cycling enthusiasts – people who ride for the pleasure of
it, many residents of Abbott Kinney and the communities surrounding
it.
At first, Aram tried to get bike shops to carry Predator bikes but
received rejection after rejection, because Predator did not have the
name recognition the bike shops were looking for. Because primarily
professional cyclists rode Predator bikes, sponsors’ names, not the
Predator brand, would appear on the frames. In addition, the
Predator "fit process," the process cyclists would go through to get
fitted for a bike, was too difficult and time-consuming for the
stores to take on. According to Aram, it takes between eight months
and a year to train a bike shop employee to fit someone for a bike,
and "bike shops didn’t care enough about the fit to meet the standard
Predator wanted to meet".
By 2008, Aram had decided Predator Cycling needed a home of its own.
He chose Venice because he felt that Predator would fit right into
the counter-culture community of small, one-of-a-kind businesses. It
turns out that Venice is also mapped out perfectly for local "rides"
(or cycling routes) in Los Angeles, which made the location all the
more appealing. Since the grand opening of the showroom in March
2008, Aram has not only embraced the Abbot Kinney community but has
contributed to its cultural scene.
Predator now manufactures a cruiser-like bike called "The Abbot",
named in honor of the street. "The Abbot" is a hand-built hybrid
constructed entirely of California-made parts and is built according
to the same standard as all the other bikes Predator manufactures.
But it has a special feature that makes it a particularly good fit
for its surroundings. Aram describes "The Abbot" as a "café racer",
carrying its rider effortlessly from one local café to another. It
has proven to be the preferred mode of transportation for locals
traveling up and down the boulevard, not to mention a fitting image
for the seamless blending of culture and everyday life in Abbot
Kinney.
In addition to running his bicycle showroom, therefore, Aram enjoys
partaking in First Fridays each month, since he believes that art and
community are an inextricable part of Predator’s cycling and business
culture and a crucial component of life in the Abbot Kinney district.
Aram collaborated with the authors for Predator’s inaugural First
Friday in March 2008. The evening featured the work of Martiros
Adalyan., The event proved a success, attracting not only Abbot
Kinney regulars but people from the surrounding communities,
including a large contingent from the Armenian community.
Martiros’ gothic canvases carpeted the walls of the courtyard, as a
deejay performed in the background while attendees sipped wine. The
energy and interest at the Predator open house convinced Aram and the
authors to collaborate on future First Fridays, which they did during
the summer months of June and August. The June exhibit featured the
art work of Greg Beylerian, Cynthia Kossayan, and Sophia Gasparian.
In August, a collaboration with Black Maria Gallery brought to the
event a diverse array of art from its own gallery. Predator and the
authors are now in the process of planning the next First Fridays art
event, slated for the beginning of next year. The aim is to help keep
the vision of Mr. Kinney alive and the beat of Abbot Kinney Boulevard
going.
All Rights Reserved: Critics’ Forum, 2008. Exclusive to the Armenian
Reporter.
Tamar Sinanian holds a Master’s degree in Contemporary Art from
Sothebys Institute in London. She is also the co-founder of TNT Art,
an art consulting company.
Taleen Tertzakian is an attorney and holds a Master’s degree in
Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies from Stanford
University. She is also the co-founder of TNT Art, an art consulting
company.
You can reach them or any of the other contributors to Critics’ Forum
at [email protected]. This and all other articles published
in this series are available online at To sign
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From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
