I'm very disappointed this has happened to you, if you bike is legal then it's legal, if not then fair enough.
The having to prove it thing has also been amended into law in NSW.
The following hasn't been tested with a police officer yet, but it does capture the spirit of the law and should help differentiate you from stupid people who are intent on ruining this legal provision for the rest of us. Given that you possibly will have to go to court to try and resolve this I hope it is helpful to you.
Step 1: Use the following formula to calculate your bikes power output based on it's top speed on a flat level road with no wind. (because your bike has been limited by rock solid it's top speed I would assume would be between 25-32KPH so your result should be 200watts or less), online calculators exist to check you working if need be.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bicycle_performance#Power_required
- 200watts is not that bad, this idea that the bike simply won't move with so little power and must be illegal if it is moving and you are not pedaling is BS, the power required curve is not linear! The laws of physics done lie! Push bikes are efficient machines! 200 watts is fairly typical of an adult turning the cranks manually and I assume why the value was chosen.
Step 2: Modify the bike to reduce its top speed until it is under 200watts if need be.
Step 3: Formulate and sign a declaration stating that your owner constructed pedal cycle with auxiliary assist engine is compliant to VSI 27 based on it's maximum design speed as per appendix 1.
- This is valid irrefutable mathematics based on the laws of physics, top speed and power output will always be linked if everything else remains equal.
- You may want to acknowledge the assumptions made in the formula and incorporate a 10% margin for error in your calculations, my bike is actually limited to 180watts just to be safe, maybe even more so if your running knobby tyres .
Step 4: Create appendix 1, with detailed calculations and possibly a graph showing the relationship between power required and speed.
I actually carry this documentation and some other artifacts detailing the bike, I have centered my documentation on conveying the idea to any police officer that I have done everything reasonable to act not only within the spirit of the law but the letter of the law as well.
In theory so long as your clocked at a speed less than your bikes maximum design speed you have proof on hand that it was outputting under 200watts at the time of the encounter.
It saddens me that this "you must prove it" amendment was made, what about innocent until proven guilty? It would have been so much more sensible to factor in a reasonable use directive. An engine size and speed restriction restriction would have been the right way to do it. Engine to big = fine, go to fast = fine much better.
Generally I think there is a misconception about the 200watt limit being so restrictive that any petrol power bike must be illegal, of course they must all be limited that has never changed. What happened in Queensland blew my mind, you must be some kind of retard to not be able to figure out that the point of the legislation is to ensure the engine doesn't not push the bike faster than what an average rider can do with out one. All those people lost the right to ride their bikes because of the unfounded bigoted ramblings of some so called "engineer" what an embarrassment to this country, reading the comments that moron made to the media made me sick. Humans have been riding bikes for a long time and many of us can achieve high average speeds say over about 27kph (or about 200 watts) on moderately long rides if we try. I have even been over taken by spandex on my bike.
Unfortunately sometimes you just can't win, I have had a very disappointing encounter with 2 NSW police officers on one occasion.
Like Fabian I to try to fly under the radar and mostly leave the engine off on residential streets or around the center of town. It's unfair that you can be 100% compliant with the law and still worry every time you pass a police car. So far I have been left alone, but I'm pretty paranoid and keep the speed right down unless I'm on a quiet road and even then don't exceed my bikes maximum design speed of just under 30kph.
If you are to continue riding now, if I was you I would be inclined to reinvent the bike a bit and tone it right down if you don't mind me making that observation. It shouldn't matter but it does
Best of luck with this issue, I sincerely hope that you beat this and can avoid paying the fines.