All Points North Kit List

All Points North is predominantly road racing, in some of the more rural parts of Northern England. At 1’000km, the fast riders would be aiming to finish in 48hours, meaning an all points north kit list needs to factor in night riding & very little sleep.

All North 2021 was held in September, where the hours of daylight & night time were about even. The UK never really gets that hot, or that cold – its often just wet. Unpredictability is about the only thing you can predict.

I took my Ribble Endurance SL, on a Hope 20FIVE dynamo wheelset with 28mm Vittoria Rubino Pro tubeless tyres. The minimal drag increase from the front dynamo was a price I was comfortable paying for unlimited 1300l, rather than relying on battery packs & charging multiple lights.

I used a tailfin aeropack to carry the majority of my kit, as well as an Apidura frame pack & top tube pack. The aeropack is brilliant bit of kit, I like to use mine for bulky kit & kit I don’t need access to on the move; such as sleep system, repair kit & tools etc. Personally I find you need 3 hands to get to stuff in a saddle bag & fasten them back up; whereas the aeropack stays supports itself & is much easier to use with the big roll top closure. The fact it doesn’t sway or rub against the bike in anyway is a huge plus.

I ride a small frame, so optimising the space inside my frame triangle is a challenge. It doesn’t matter what size frame pack I use, I can’t get a decent sized bottle on the downtube – even with cage adapters to shift the bottle position further down. As such I can get an 850ml on the seat tube & a 600ml on the downtube. That’s about enough for 3-4 hours riding. I chose to run an additional 1.5l hydration bladder in my frame pack, where all my other food was stored. 3l of water is enough for 7-8 hours riding; meaning I could ride through the night without worrying about resupply. My preference is to ride with a frame pack for access to stuff on the move; I don’t like having food in jersey pockets – I prefer to have waterproof layers & gloves etc. there.

The top tube pack was where I kept my electronics & personal effects. As for electronics, I had a Wahoo GPS, dynamo front light & then 3 USB powered rear lights, which I could alternate between & charge via the USB dynamo output.

My all points north kit list worked; yet it could definitely be optimised – both the races I’ve entered this year have been in the UK shoulder seasons where overnight temperatures & daylight hours have played a big part in my kit choices. With all my learnings & feeling unsatisfied with my performance this year, I’m very much motivated ahead of APN22; I’m looking forward to putting everything into practice & hopefully delivering a performance I can be proud of.