diff --git a/images/base/files/etc/systemd/system/kubelet.service b/images/base/files/etc/systemd/system/kubelet.service
index 6245497d2c..4aa81b7874 100644
--- a/images/base/files/etc/systemd/system/kubelet.service
+++ b/images/base/files/etc/systemd/system/kubelet.service
@@ -3,6 +3,11 @@
 [Unit]
 Description=kubelet: The Kubernetes Node Agent
 Documentation=http://kubernetes.io/docs/
+# NOTE: kind deviates from upstream here to avoid crashlooping
+# This does *not* support altering the kubelet config path though.
+# We intend to upstream this change but first need to solve the upstream
+# Packaging problem (all kubernetes versions use the same files out of tree).
+ConditionPathExists=/var/lib/kubelet/config.yaml
 
 [Service]
 ExecStart=/usr/bin/kubelet
diff --git a/pkg/build/nodeimage/defaults.go b/pkg/build/nodeimage/defaults.go
index fe7d317c62..291faf2677 100644
--- a/pkg/build/nodeimage/defaults.go
+++ b/pkg/build/nodeimage/defaults.go
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ package nodeimage
 const DefaultImage = "kindest/node:latest"
 
 // DefaultBaseImage is the default base image used
-const DefaultBaseImage = "kindest/base:v20210205-c0cffc8c"
+const DefaultBaseImage = "kindest/base:v20210213-4187cf67"
 
 // DefaultMode is the default kubernetes build mode for the built image
 // see pkg/build/kube.Bits