I followed the 1990 Tour de France by backpack. I was wondering around some small town after the end of a stage (Epinal? Besançon?) and stumbled into the small parking lot of a hotel where some Japanese mechanics/engineers were working on a magnesium frame. I forget if one of the teams was trying it out but it looked like nothing I'd ever seen then or now. I don't speak Japanese, but I pointed to the frame and asked "magnesium?". They nodded and let me get a close up look. Somewhere in my files I have a photo of one of the mechanics standing with the bike.