By Adam Hollingworth
The biggest name in cycling, Bradley Wiggins, has reignited debate about compulsory helmets.
Only a third of British cyclists wear helmets and the British gold medallist says they should be mandatory, but cycling advocates here aren't so sure.
One of those advocates is Tim Gummer, who says he never wears a helmet riding round Auckland despite risking a $50 fine.
“Literally I feel safer than when I used to wear a helmet,” says Mr Gummer. “In the big picture I'm conscious that if I do wear a helmet I'm sending a signal that cycling is much more dangerous than it actually is.”
Tour de France and gold medal winner Wiggins sparked the debate in Britain after a cyclist went under an Olympics bus.
“Ultimately if you get knocked off and you haven't got a helmet on how can you kind of argue, or if you get killed and you haven’t got a helmet on,” says Wiggins.
In New Zealand 10 cyclists a year die, despite helmets being made compulsory 18 years ago.
Paul Nichols watched as his daughter Grace went under the wheels of a car as they were out cycling - but she survived.
“The helmet split into a whole lot of pieces so it did its job and without the helmet she would certainly have not been with us today,” says Mr Nichols.
And St John Ambulance also says helmets make you safer.
“Helmets reduce injuries, and in particular they reduce injuries to the brain and in doing so they reduce the number of people who die,” says the organisation.
But Mr Gummer says we need to weigh that advice against our collective loss of fitness when people pack up pedalling because they don't want to wear a helmet.
“A helmet will save some heads but break many hearts and obesity is one of our biggest problems in New Zealand,” he says.
One study reported the helmet law"led to a 19 percent drop reduction in head injuries to cyclists over its first three years - but another showed many gave up cycling altogether, though the distance we're cycling a year is now nudging back up.
Cycling radicals say others don't want to copy New Zealand. Norway looked at our helmet experiment then rejected it, and Mexico and Israel are the latest to soften their laws on helmets.
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