Interesting this topic comes up now. I saw the strangest bike boom Japanese bike on Saturday.
It was a C. Itoh, the predecessor I believe, to Bridgestone. The strange thing about this bike is that it had huge casts lugs (I don't know if they were steel or aluminum) and the 4 main tubes were stainless steel! There was a label that identified the tubes as stainless. They were polished to a mirror finish.
I guess the tubes were glued into the lugs, which had the design of lug points cast into them (looked really clunky). Otherwise, the bike appeared to be a bike boom el cheapo.
Ever see one of these? It was too small for me (maybe 54 cm), but if someone wants it, it is for sale at a local dealer.
Louis Schulman Tampa, Florida (where it is extremely cold, it went down to 36 degrees last night!)