Regarding 555 tubing, I have a Raleigh Portage touring bike, with 555 Reynolds tubing. It is double butted tubing, and the frame is all lugged. The bike was made for fully-loaded touring, having a 107cm/42" wheelbase, 650B wheels, cantilever brakes, all the requisite brazeons for racks and 3 bottle cages. I shared some e-mails with Sheldon Brown about these bikes. He liked them. Of all the touring bikes I've had and ridden, the Portage is my favorite. Very stable, with no shimmy, even when the panniers aren't loaded anywhere near equally. Many Raleigh models in the 1980's were built with 555 tubing. The Portage was available from about '83-'85. I suspect that 555 is perhaps a bit beefier than say 531, given the bikes Raleigh used it for. Certainly not low-end tubing, by any means. Al Fack, Mankato Minnesota
> 'Scraped away some old paint on my new Raleigh frame and found the
> remnants
> of a Reynolds 555 sticker. Is this tubing junk, exceedingly rare? Still
> need a fork. Rod handsfield, Wichita, KS.