I'm an editor with a magazine for residential builders called The Journal of Light Construction. I look at a lot of project photos sent in by authors, and every so often a bike appears in one of them. Here are couple of examples. One shows some kind of Nishiki in a garage in southern California. Maybe a late-80s Olympic or something similar? (The article, incidentally, was about a company that faux-finishes steel garage doors to make them look like they're made of wood.)
I posted that photo several years ago, but I came across another one a couple of days ago. This is for an article about preventing air leaks in air-conditioned houses, by a builder in Austin. Among the photos he sent is the one below (it's not going to run in the article, obviously), which shows the interior of an attic with a bunch of loose-fill fiberglass, what seems to be a Christmas-tree stand, and a tantalizing partial view of a bike that's partly covered with insulation.
It looks like a decent quality bike. Is that an Ideale saddle, or maybe a Brooks? Beyond that all I can see is a rear side-pull brake, half-chromed seat stays, and an un-fluted seatpost. Rims seem to be aluminum--can't make out the rear derailleur, but the freewheel seems to be a narrow-range version, which suggests to me that maybe this is an upper-level bike of some kind.
Of course, we'll never know. Maybe this is only of interest to me. I've got to get to work.