So it’s no surprise that Caleb Owens’ new breed build, ‘Siksika’, took first place in the builder voting at Born Free 3. It’s the sort of bike that doesn’t rely on embedded jewels, CNCed wheels, or thousands of skulls ghosted into the paint to get attention. As Owens puts it, “I’m not a huge fan of the trailer queen scene. I’m not so much of a show bike builder. I build bikes to ride. So this is sort of my take on a show bike that’s really rideable.” Frankly, from a distance, Siksika doesn’t immediately identify itself as a contest winner, but as you get close it begins to suck you in, and once it does it’s just fun as hell to get down on one knee and explore its nooks and crannies.

The H-D custom is primarily composed of parts from two different bikes that Owens had previously owned and ridden. The rebuilt, all-original ‘56 Panhead motor came from one, and a ’66 shovel donated more pieces of the puzzle. Caleb found an original ’49 transmission with a jockey top in a pile of parts that he scavenged off a basket case of another bike, and that was also taken apart and rebuilt with Andrews gears and the cases polished. He found an S&S super bee carburetor, never used, still in the box and that got added to the recipe as well.

The front end is an early big twin springer that was narrowed by a few inches. Owens also narrowed, tunneled, and Frisco mounted the 50’s era Wassel gas tank, and built the handlebars from scratch. The front wheel is a super thin 23 inch Speedway racing 36 spoke aluminum wheel laced to an early chopper hub. The buffalo hide seat was handmade for Caleb by Flying Monkee Fabrications.

One of the elements that immediately attracts the eye of the beholder is the vintage style filigree embellishing many of the components. As Owens explains, “I didn’t want to do anything over the top. I wanted to do something a little more subtle and classy. So I decided to get some traditional gun engraving done. I found an old gun engraver and outlined what I was going for and he was pretty excited about it.”

Subtler and classier still was the fascinating pseudo-ghosted scrollwork Easter-egged throughout the painted tins. It provided the perfect, unique yet restrained element to take Siksika over the top according to Caleb’s peers. “The whole idea was to build this 60’s version of a chopper but with my personality in it, and maybe a bit of a modern twist with the stance. The paint was sort of the icing on the cake. The trend over the last few years for this style of bike has been to do some sort of crazy 60’s paint with lace and pink, but that never really attracted me that much. I wanted to see if I can do a show bike with just straight gloss black, and see if maybe there was something else I could do with it. We explored the idea of something along the lines of engraving, and tried etching into the clear coat of the paint. I did some tests on another bike and really liked the result. So we designed these custom scrollwork patterns and we etched designs into the tank, the oil tank, the fender, and the primary cover. It’s basically etched with an airbrush and then polished down, so at a distance you don’t see it. You’re basically sand blasting it and then polishing it back down to where it appears real subtle. The light has to hit it just right to see the scroll pattern. I hadn’t really seen anyone do that, so it’s nice to do something that not everybody has on their bike.”

The most truly customized element of the build though, is the deeply personal touch that Caleb reaches for every time he jockeys his Panhead into gear. “The shifter knob is a turned piece of walnut, and then I glazed in an old photograph of my father taken in 1946.” And that’s exactly what makes me feel that the glory days of custom bike building aren’t over, that perhaps they’re only just beginning. It wasn’t long ago that TV fabricators finished off their creations by tacking a corporate logo onto it. Caleb Owens finishes his off by glassing a piece of his life into it. Check out his very cool blog here.