There are good reasons New York was named Bicycling Magazine‘s top U.S. cycling city in that publication’s October 2014 issue. In the space of a just a few years New York has built 350 miles of bikes lanes; launched a bike share program that now has nearly 100,000 members; and doubled its commuter rate between 2007 and 2011, to nearly 40,000 daily riders. The city has a 2020 goal to make 6 percent of all trips in the city bike-based.

While we consider Nutcase’s HQ hometown of Portland, Oregon to be an absolutely sweet biking city in its own right (though we are fourth in Bicycling’s rankings we already have six percent of all city trips made by bike) we absolutely salute New York’s achievement.

And of course, we  decided to honor the occasion in the best way we know how – by sending a New Yorker – in this case New York City’s Mayor Bill de Blasio – a signed Nutcase helmet.

As Nutcase founder Michael Morrow put it in his card to Mayor de Blasio, a lot of hard work went in to New York’s quick transformation into a top biking city.

“We’re all about making helmet use and riding safely both cool and fun,” Michael said in the note to de Blasio. “We’d love to make you an honorary Nutcase and I hope you don’t mind if I call you Mayor Bill.”

Nutcase sent de Blasio an autographed Gen3 Americana helmet, which is an apt choice for any New York City cyclist. One of our most popular designs, Americana is also available for Moto.

Stay tuned for Bill’s response to his new Nutcase. We hope to see him and the helmet on the city’s streets soon.