Originally Posted by
brian3069
The Racing USA series was introduced in 1984 to coincide with the '84 Olympics. Raleigh of America was the US cycling team sponsor. RoA started building the higher end frames with Reynolds 531 in 1986. I'm pretty sure the frames in previous years where built with Raleigh 555 tubing.
There was version of Raleigh 555 that was basically rebranded Reynolds 531C. It was introduced for the 1984 model year and called 555RSL. The decals indicate a manganese-molybdenum alloy and state Ti Reynolds manufacture. The frame were manufactured in England by Raleigh. Other grades of Raleigh 555 appear to based on various Tange tubesets.
Another interesting anomaly are the 1984-1985 Levi's-Raleigh team frames used by some Olympians. They were built in Canada by Marinoni using Columbus SL/SP tubing.
