Sponsoring Cycle OverRide

As it turns out, planning and executing a cross-country bike ride takes a lot of time, effort, and money. Thankfully, we have a number of very generous corporate sponsors who are supporting us in this crazy endeavor including:

• Tenable Network Security
• Tenacity Solutions
• Ponte Technologies
• MAD Security
• ShmooCon

That said, we’re still looking for another sponsor or two to help us defray the costs of this event. This is a great opportunity to get exposure for your company and show your support for an event that will be seen by and participated in by a number of information security professionals. Not only are we riding across the country with various infosec pros, but for the third year we are organizing an early morning bike ride at DefCon. The past two years have seen a shockingly large number of riders waking up before 6am to ride off in to the desert and enjoy the sights of Nevada. Even more surprising… everyone lived to tell the tale. 😉

We’ve also purchased an RV… A converted Sprinter van from Airstream. We’ll be putting sponsor logos on the outside of it and using it as our mobile command center. We’ll be posting regularly from the road, doing podcasts leading up to DefCon, etc, and the command center will be prominent in all of it.

Take a look at the sponsorship levels below. If you or your organization is interested in sponsoring us or has any questions, please drop me a line at gdead at shmoo dot com and I’ll get right back to you.

Also, don’t forget you can support the EFF on our behalf. They’re always happy to take donations.

==== Sponsorship Levels =====
$5,000 Sponsorship
Large Logo on Official Cycle OverRide Van for the duration of the ride
Logo on Jersey worn by all riders
Logo on Website
4 Cycle OverRide T-shirts

$2,500 Sponsorship
Small Logo on Official Cycle OverRide Van for the duration of the ride
Logo on Jersey worn by all riders
Logo on Website
2 Cycle OverRide T-shirts

$1,000 Sponsorship
Logo on Jersey worn by all riders
Logo on Website

Jersey Time

We’re getting down to the wire on ordering shwag for the ride. Jersey orders need to go in early next week. While we finish nailing down sponsors and getting the art finalized, we need to also get an idea of who wants a jersey. Even if you’re not doing the ride (or you’re just joining us for the ride in Vegas), you’re welcome to buy a jersey. The details are roughly as follows:

The art for the jersey isn’t finished yet, but we’re using the same basic design as we did for the Vegas rides (below). On the back this time we’ll have some gears and a map of the US, and we’ll have a few more sponsor logos… but the overall look and feel will be the same.  Cost will be in the ballpark of $75 each, but we won’t know until we get final numbers in.

If you’re interested or have questions, please send an email to gdead at shmoo dot com and let me know. I’ll post the final art once its ready.

UPDATE: Sizing info is here.

Donate to the EFF

One of the reasons we’re doing this ride is to raise awareness of issues facing the Information Security community. JP and I both feel very passionately about information security, the importance of education and research in this field, and the need for researchers to have the latitude necessary to perform their work.

Over the years, security researchers have often found themselves in difficult situations due to the nature of their research. From cracking weak encryption algorithms to disclosing vulnerabilities in important infrastructure, performing security research often means putting yourself in harms way. Thankfully, through it all, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has been there to provide guidance, advice, and (when necessary) legal defense for those who need it. The staff at the EFF have been great supporters of the information security/hacker community, and for that we owe them our great thanks.

We also owe them some money 😉 The EFF is a non-profit and relies on folks like you for all the funds that keep the lights on and the legal briefs flying. So, we humbly ask that if you’re interested in supporting us on our ride across the country, please do so by donating to the EFF. If you’re so inclined, we’d love to hear in the comments below that you donated on our behalf. Every donation helps motivate us… which is particularly important as we we climb hills in Kentucky and (more importantly) ride through Kansas, the land of straight lines and wind.

About 10 Weeks Out…

Woof. Just about 2 and a half months, and we’ll be on the road. Craziness. Training has been going well, but I’m afraid I’m trying to make up for lost time over the winter. Definitely have a few more aches and pains than I’d like but nothing alarming. I definitely have new bike lust going on (a new bike would be the perfect way to prepare for the ride, right?) but Heidi is helping me keep that in check 😉

We should have a sponsor packet on the site this week for potential corporate sponsors to see what they’d get for their sponsorship. Also, we completed our first trial trip in the Cycle Override Mobile Command Center (ie: our new Airstream Interstate). For the most part it went very well, but I definitely need to fabricate something to organize the bikes and gear in the back a bit better. Also, jersey orders will need to go in soon so I’ll start getting the art ready for that. Going to be a crazy few weeks…

The new start location is Yorktown, VA on June 18th. We’re officially starting at the end of the TransAmerica Trail and taking that all the way to the Western Express. No more Georgetown to Garrett County via the C&O canal *whew*. For those who aren’t familiar with the TransAmerica and Western Express, take a look at the Adventure Cycling routes. They’re a great org, and if you do any distance cycling, it’s worth joining.

There are a few folks meeting up with us in Utah to ride the final few days in to Vegas. If you’re interested, drop us a line and we’ll get you the details. I know Jim has already identified a bike shop in Washington UT to drop ship bikes to so that may be a good place to plan on joining up. That’s two 85 mile days ride in to Vegas… Mind you, we’re going through the Valley of Fire State Park in late July so we’ll be hitting the road early, like probably 4 am, to beat the heat. You may want to have an LED light or two for that stretch.

That’s it for now. Be sure to follow us on Twitter (@cycle_override) for updates.