I wouldn't worry too much, I have routinely done about 50-60 km/h on a motorized bike and had 0 issues. Always had the best disk brakes I could buy though.
Anekdata doesn’t prove much here. Some things you might not be considering:
1. At 60 km/h you are going the speed of a car but car drivers don’t expect you to be going that fast and as a result aren’t wired to look for you. Doesn’t matter how fast you were going when a car going 60-90 km/h didn’t see you and ran you over.
2. Brakes are only half the equation. If your tires start slipping your brakes will lock up and then you go splat.
3. If you do happen to get off at 60 km/h you will have road rash that will take off large chunks of skin even if you wear an armored jacket and armored gloves. In spandex you’ll be looking like Deadpool pretty quickly.
4. Your tires will heat up pretty quickly at these speeds. That will affect how they handle quite a bit.
>car drivers don’t expect you to be going that fast and as a result aren’t wired to look for you
That's why I use hi vis jackets and reflective motorcycle helmets. I am not going like a run of the mill bicylist.
I use all terrain tires, I never had an issue and I am certainly not the only one that uses motorized bikes like this, in Argentina and Brazil for example, there are lots of people using them daily for their commute and nothing really happens.
>If you do happen to get off at 60 km/h you will have road rash that will take off large chunks of skin even if you wear an armored jacket and armored gloves
Wouldn't that happen with a motorcycle too? I don't see your point
All fair points but it is quite an undertaking to build an ebike that does 60km/hr with a useful range. Heavy motor, serious AH high discharge battery and a controller that can handle those amps. Your battery system will need to be above 48volts. Pushing wind above 35km/hr requires a lot more energy for each 5km/hr gain.
45-50km/hr idea fairly easy though with a 48 volt system.
Re #1 - If you are driving at places without bike lanes being able to move together with traffic flow is essential. Which then you can ask - do you also not expect motorcyclist to be on road either?
Motor cycles get treated with a lot more respect than bikes. I had a 50km/hr ebike with red back light, front white blnky light. Cars turning left into your opposite lane of travel were the worst. They never judged my speed correctly and there were many instances where I had to emergency brake to avoid a t-bone many times.
I only road residential roads and bike paths, planned my route carefully to avoid highways. Key things are to take the lane if you can do the speed limit and only give it up if safe to do so. Avoid driving close to parked cars that will open their door and kill you. Watch left turns in front of you.
Have you ever seen videos of how invisible you look despite all the high viz stuff? In some cases it becomes urban camo. Take a look at this video, especially at 2:30 or so. It’ll show you just how little visibility you’ll have:
Your best bet is to have all your clothing match your bike, Power Rangers style, to increase your chances. And lots and lots of very bright lights. One little handlebar mounted light is going to look like a reflection or a flashlight.
15mph is nothing in terms o safety (granted no break problems). On flat lane I hit that regularly without pushing hard, most people can handle that outside crowded areas.