Francisco Alí Manén, the founder of Lord Drake Kustoms, took a far more adventurous route to the fabrication bench than most custom builders. Before he was turning out award-winning machines from his workshops in Malaga, Spain, and Miami, Florida, Fran was a dedicated mountaineer who spent a decade scaling rock faces worldwide. In 2002, following a final expedition to the Himalayas that left him with a collection of broken bones, he chose to swap his climbing ropes for welding torches and return to a childhood obsession.
Raised on a steady diet of heavy metal music and the radical choppers featured in 1980s music videos, Fran had already customized his first Vespino moped with hand-painted skulls and album art by the age of 14. Today, Lord Drake Kustoms refuses to be pinned down to a single genre, pivoting effortlessly between cruisers, cafe racers, and trackers, evidenced by their BMW R NineT Supermoto featured late last year.
For his latest creation, Fran set his sights on the 2026 European Harley Owners Group (H.O.G.) Rally Custom Bike Show in Cascais, Portugal, aiming to build on prior successes at Daytona’s Rat’s Hole show and the World Championship. Fran notes that, from the very first sketch, “Babylon was conceived as much more than a custom motorcycle, with the ultimate goal of creating a piece that could combine classic elegance, technical innovation, and top-level craftsmanship.”
The canvas for this ambitious project was a modern Harley-Davidson Softail, a factory platform celebrated for mimicking the clean lines of a vintage rigid frame while hiding a functional rear shock. Lord Drake Kustoms wanted to take this illusion to a much more radical extreme, starting by discarding the factory rear shock in favor of a fully adjustable Air Ride suspension setup that allows the bike to slam low to the tarmac for a dramatic show stance. To accommodate a broader, more aggressive footprint, Fran fabricated a custom swingarm designed to hug a new 21-inch custom rear wheel.
The modifications up front are equally dramatic, with the stock forks tossed aside to make way for an extended Panhead-style springer front end. This custom fork features intricate, twisted legs that have been gold-plated, injecting an immediate hit of vintage show-bike swagger into the profile. Nestled securely between the fork legs is a 21-inch front wheel wrapped tightly in a classic Avon Cobra Chrome white-wall tire, mirroring the rear, and perfectly balancing the updated proportions of the revised chassis.
Look closely at the rear hub, and you will notice a clean layout achieved through the use of a sprotor. This component combines the drive sprocket and the brake rotor into a single, unified assembly, removing the visual clutter typically found on the rear wheel. While sprotors are notoriously finicky about outright stopping power, Fran refused to compromise on real-world ridability. Unlike many radical show choppers that eschew front brakes entirely for the sake of aesthetics, Babylon features a front brake caliper mounted to the black-and-gold springer fork, ensuring this rolling piece of art is fully equipped for the street.
The rider ergonomics are a pure nod to post-war Americana, anchored by a set of custom-bent mustache-style handlebars that sweep back toward the rider to establish a relaxed posture. The seating arrangement also plays into this vintage aesthetic, perfectly mimicking the silhouette of an old-school sprung solo saddle while being rigidly mounted directly to the frame. For this design choice, we owe Fran a debt of gratitude, as running secondary seat springs on a Softail frame that already features built-in rear suspension is a common design faux pas that LDK wisely avoided.
The finished work on Babylon can only be described as opulent, featuring a meticulous blend of soft colors and precious-metal plating. Lord Drake Kustoms opted for a cream-colored base coat that blankets the split fuel tank, the minimalist rear fender, and the sweeping mustache handlebars.
This clean canvas is contrasted by extensive gold plating that accents almost every mechanical component on the motorcycle, including the pushrod tubes, controls, and the front fork assembly. This dazzling display of precious metal is beautifully grounded by the rich, organic textures of a custom-carved leather center console and a matching deep-brown leather solo seat.
When Lord Drake Kustoms rolled Babylon into the Cascais exhibition center for the 2026 European H.O.G. Rally, it did not just compete; it dominated the field. The bike pulled off a rare hat-trick by walking away with the three most prestigious titles of the event, being crowned the European Cruiser Champion, winning the public’s heart as the People’s Choice, and taking home the coveted Best of Show award. This sweeping victory immediately validated Fran’s vision of blending classic elegance with technical innovation on an international stage.
Originally, Babylon was intended to remain a one-off, strictly custom-built for the show circuit. However, the international frenzy following its European sweep and a flood of customer requests from around the world prompted Lord Drake Kustoms to make an exceptional decision. For the first time in the workshop’s history, they are launching an ultra-exclusive, worldwide limited production run of just 10 serialized units. Each subsequent machine will be handcrafted to order, ensuring the exact same level of artistry and award-winning execution.
