Radrunner Plus Motor Noise

[carolaa]

Can anyone else with a Radrunner Plus tell me if their bike has a fairly noisy motor? Mine sounds like a small sewing machine. It's not unpleasant, but I'd prefer my bike to be much quieter. I've had mine for a few months now and my husband recently bought a Rad City and his bike is completely silent. I wrote to Radrunner and got a complicated response about tensioning spokes or making a derailleur adjustment all of which make my brain hurt. I don't want to muck around with this or spend money at a bike shop if this is normal and just the way the Radrunner Plus sounds. thanks!

[Mori55]

My wife?s plus is noisy. My rover 6 is a lot quieter.

[Brirandle]

Love my Rad Runner Plus. Have had it about a month now and use it to commute to work each day (7miles) and pleasure rides on weekend. I can hear a louder hum but to be honest it doesn?t bother me at all. Get a lot of compliments from others how cool it looks. Like an older type of motorcycle 😊👍

[Roverdrive]

I think the Citi is a direct drive motor - they are supposed to be much quieter as there are no internal gears in the hub.  Do a search for geared hub motor vs direct drive and you can see the differences

[Water Doc]

My plus is quieter than my Mini-4 but still noticeable -  a bigger issue is the tires have a loud hum, especially on concrete -   no change after 7 months of riding and 4200 miles

[PNWRADMAN]

I have the RR and City bikes too and the RR is definitely louder than the City.  The City bike is so quiet. As you mentioned is not overly loud and manageable but its good to know I'm not the only one.   

[Gwing21]

I have 2 new (4 weeks old) Runner 2, one is quite and the other sounds like what your describing when using Pas2 or higher and with Throttle only. Rad gave the same response. After a few messages and phone calls, Rad gave me a warranty code for one hr work at bike shop. They realigned chain alignment thing & Crank arms. Still have the noise??.Yesterday got a message, Rad sending out new Back Wheel/Motor under warranty! Keep calling and messaging them, it?s frustrating to say the least

[PNWRADMAN]

Gosh, that's good to know!  I'm going to call them now and see if I can get a replacement wheel/motor too.

[Mori55]

My radrunner plus is noisy. Noisier than my rover 6.

[JimQ]

My Radrummer Plus is far noisier than my wife?s RadCity 5 Plus.  As another mentioned, at peddle assist 2 and higher, or giving it much throttle, it?s noisy as you describe.  People hear me at a distance, but my wife?s City 5 Plus doesn?t attract any attention at all.  I got the same pushback from Rad.  I even took it into the Seattle store for a warranty service.  They said that the Runner has a different motor than the City, and that is why it?s noisier.  No satisfaction and disappointing.  I suspect I?ll swap out the motor myself along with a new controller next spring when the warranty is up.  Otherwise, it seems to run fine and the noise hasn?t gotten [much] worse.

[mushroom]

We've got a radrunner+ , radrunner 2 and a radmini 4 and they all sound the same.
Like a sewing machine

[PNWRADMAN]

UPDATE:  I did call and they asked for a video of the noise and they immediately shipped out a new motor and credit to have it replaced with a local bike shop.