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.