Yeah, that is the legal limit but I turned it off in the bios. When cycling on roads I want to be going as fast as possible to keep things safer for me by moving at roughly traffic speeds and disincentivizing dangerous maneuvers by motorists. On bike trails and such I keep to 20mph or so as safe.
I actually tried to get mine registered as a moped with a license plate and insurance coverage etc. but was essentially told to take a hike by the state and insurance companies. So I did.
Okay, you should have said that in the first post. If you're not using the class of vehicle the comment was talking about, your experience isn't really relevant.
Even so, I can go at least 4MPH greater than OP's suggested maximum speed legally.
We know :)
(to be fair and charitable: I agree that moving with traffic is, everything else equal, safer than not moving with traffic. But everything else is NOT equal - I am not convinced you have the weight [i.e. centre of gravity, inertia, ability to absorb bumps, etc], maneuverability, traction, braking power, and as you point out insurance or license and possibly training, and possibly protective systems as other vehicles moving at the same speed)
2) "Moving with the speed of traffic for my safety" is a... "Nice" (that was sarcasm, I mean egocentric) attitude.
3) "The speed of traffic" may be higher for you now that you live in the countryside, but A) sounds like you rode / ride about as fast in the city, too?; and B) the typical use case relevant to the discussion is not yours but the city/suburban one.
It's bad enough that you can go so fast indefinitely; please don't.
Anything going faster than 25MPH (40 km/h) without cutting out in NYC is legally classified as a moped. https://www1.nyc.gov/html/dot/html/bicyclists/ebikes.shtml
Without commenting on safety, let me just say that 40mph is a fantasy, unless you're going down a VERY steep and long hill. It also requires you to be in a road racing bike position, or air resistance will flat out not let you go that fast (people are quite wide)
But my bike is otherwise stock. There is no extra power added to the stock Yamaha motor (250W rated, ~400W peak power). The only thing that is removed is the 28mph limiter.
The DIY conversions that let you go 40mph (I've seen the videos just as well) are more in the realm of electric mopeds and motorcycles than bikes, IMO.
Those speeds sound like bogus. I can maintain about 40kph on my ebike on a flat surface, but that requires pedaling in addition to the motor and is a fairly energetic exercise.
Also, pushing beyond 45kph, you really start to feel the air resistance and it becomes exponentially harder to go beyond 45kph for any long period of time, unless going downhill.
Most ebikes don't really come with the chainring size to go up to high speeds, unless modified with a giant 50+ size, which is more apt for racing road bikes (non-electric)
Nitpick: it becomes cubically harder. ;)
Quadratic: x^2
Cubic: x^3
Polynomial (eg. 3rd degree): a + b x + c x^2 + d x^3
Exponential: e^x
In most countries that would be far above the legal limits imposed on ebikes. As a result, the ebikes available for purchase are all limited to 25-32 kph max and typically have power limits of 250-300 W. Since ebikes are a lot heavier, exceeding 32 kph for more than a few seconds is generally very difficult.
I don't think GP is being disingenuous with any of his assertions. In the US there might be ebikes with much higher top speeds, but jacquesm doesn't live in the US and neither do most of the other people on this planet. Most ebikes sold do exactly what he's describing.