Charles Leclerc’s custom Husqvarna Vitpilen 701

What bike would you expect a young F1 driver to ride? A full-on superbike maybe, for track fun and honing skills? Or a hyper-naked roadster dripping in high-tech? Or maybe they’d go the other way, and cruise about Monte Carlo on a massive chromed Harley with tassles and Miss Monaco 2019 on the back?

Well here’s your answer – 22-year-old Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc has had this Husqvarna Vitpilen customised for his needs, by a French custom builder called Bad Winners (no, us neither). As ever with this sort of thing, there’s not much in the way of engine tuning, with an SC Projects race pipe, K&N pod filter and Power Commander unleashing a few extra ponies from the single-cylinder KTM 690 engine. The chassis tweaks are more exciting – carbon wheels from Brit firm Dymag, and a drop in overall mass from these, and the exhaust mods.

It’s the styling where the big mods come though, with a whole new set of carbon-fibre bodywork, a new rear subframe and a totally revised speedo/headlight arrangement.

Now the Vitpilen is a sweet little roadster – it’s essentially a pepped-up KTM 690 Duke in a posh frock, and we like it as an urban fun tool. It’s maybe not the first thing we’d have thought of as an F1 drivers’ wheels, but there you go. If the Apex 2.0 floats your boat though, then the Paris-based design firm will sell you the parts direct, or build one for you.

Image Courtesy: Bad Winners