Lately I’ve been riding my 50 yr old British 3-speed “Emma Thompson Bike” around town. It’s been pretty hot and a slow upright bike keeps me from rushing and breaking a sweat.
But she is a bit… well… loud.
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When riding a wheel on Sheffield steel folks definitely hear you coming. But the Boston area roads don’t help the situation. They are pretty rough. So I wondered if I could measure the state of the roads by the sounds that Emma Thompson Bike makes? 
Fenders, chain guards, baskets, racks. All of these can get loose on bad roads and cause a lot of noise make sure all the nuts and bolts are tight. You could also have a loose or stretched chain banging up against the chain guard when you go over bumps if you have a chain guard. I like the way you drew Bikeyface vibrating I know the feeling well biking on Main Street north of the Long Island Expressway here in Queens NYC ouch!
I wish I could share the photo of the designated bike trail entrance to Clyburn Arboretum in Baltimore. It’s a cattle grate … to keep the deer in the park and off the road. Because a cattle grate is meant to be inconvenient to walk across — keeping deer in — carrying the trike (33 pounds and not as elegant as a bike to carry) seemed not an option. It rattled my brains … a lot!
I’ll not be visiting the arboretum on my tricycle again.
I actually have a PBP story related to this. When I started PBP a couple weeks ago I’d pumped up my tires for speed and man was it noisy. My rear fender installation was kind of iffy — trying to fit Berthoud fenders I ended up using stainless steel zip ties, and there were some “issues” — anyway on French chipseal roads things got really bothersome. Then I finally gave up and deflated the tires some and guess what; same roads, same klutzy fender installation, but no noise (though a bit slower). That’s what tires are there for, I guess, to absorb the vibration. So if some of your components are not quite screwed down right, try running with lower pressure. Or just fix the installation.
Check out this Bicycle Dutch post on testing cycle track surfaces
https://bicycledutch.wordpress.com/2013/07/25/testing-road-surfaces-in-vught/
I’d like to try the ‘bottle test’ in Melbourne, although I’m certain I’ll end up with a pannier full of shattered glass!