Rogue Bar vs B&R, stiffness comparison

[veryhrm]

How do you find your Rogue to be deficient? My thinking is that unless you have a particular problem with the current one... save money and get one of the ~$600 bearing bars for your oly lifts. To put it another way, i don't think the other bushing bars would be significantly better for your OLs than the Rogue (but i stipulate that i'm just BSing since the closest thing i can do to an olympic lift is a not very good PC and i've only ever used a handful of bars).

[rumblefish]

What's your opinion on the rogue with no center knurling? Is it noticeable on low bar squats?

[AdamW]

I squatted with the Rogue Bar for about a year, no real issues but I did chalk my back. The bar doesn't feel like its slipping but the second you compare it to a bar with a center knurl you feel like you've been missing out. I much prefer the center knurl, just feels more locked in.

[DRice311]

How do you find your Rogue to be deficient? My thinking is that unless you have a particular problem with the current one... save money and get one of the ~$600 bearing bars for your oly lifts. To put it another way, i don't think the other bushing bars would be significantly better for your OLs than the Rogue (but i stipulate that i'm just BSing since the closest thing i can do to an olympic lift is a not very good PC and i've only ever used a handful of bars).

To be honest, my motivation for getting a new bar is actually because I need a 2nd bar. I work out at a commercial gym during the week (strength training), and in my garage on the weekends (Oly technique). The gym owner is cool, but lately he has really been riding my ass about doing deadlifts. He thinks I'm going to break one of his shitty bars. Plus his bars are crap, and most are 32-33mm (which drives me fucking nuts). He has 1 that is 28-29mm, but of course that is the one everyone goes for. I recently ok'ed it with him for me to store my own bar there. I don't care if other people use it, as long as it's known its mine - meaning when I'm there I get to use it, and if I ever leave the gym it comes with me. So, I have to decide if I want to bring my rogue bar there, then get a nexgen, B&R (or equivelent oly bar) for my garage; or if I want to keep the rogue bar in my garage, and buy a power bar specifically to bring to this gym.

I like my rogue bar a lot, but if I am going to get a 2nd bar - I'd just assume have a little variety. I was leaning towards buying a more specialized oly bar and bringing the rogue bar to the gym, mainly because I don't know if I want to buy a new bar only to have it get beat up. The Rogue bar I'm pretty sure is guarenteed for life - so even if some dipshit does bend it, I'd be covered. But Adam brings up some good points.

Of course another option would be to take the same route you did, and get the rogue power bar - is it guarenteed for life as well?

[AdamW]

Yeah the Rogue Power Bar is warrantied for life against bending as well, good selling point for sure. They don't cover bending as a result of dropping the bar on a box, bench or across safety pins in a rack, just developing a permanent bend from being loaded. I think that's fair though and is the only situation I'd really expect a replacement anyways. Anything else is sort of your own fault, haha...

[porphyry]

No particularly useful insights here but I was tossing up between the B&R and the Rogue Power Bar but was put off by the spotty B&R record. Also, I live directly next to the Bayou in Houston and I figured the maintenance would be too annoying.

My first RPB arrived with a big (maybe 6"?) flat spot/scratch on the knurling, like someone had dragged it over the pins back and forth, fully weighted. FWIW it was straight and I actually wasn't that unhappy about it but they messed up another part of my order so I mentioned it in passing and they sent out a replacement before I even asked.

The second one is perfect. I'm very happy with it so far. My wife has a Rogue Bella Bar. I find the finish a little bit more slippery than the RPB and the knurling is less sharp/grippy - I assumed it would be the same as the Rogue non-Power Bar. It also sucks squatting without a center knurl IMO (I sometimes warm up with it) so she just uses the RPB for squatting now.

[SQUAT_316]

What's your opinion on the rogue with no center knurling? Is it noticeable on low bar squats?

Rumble, if its any help....I bought the Rogue Bruiser bar. Has no center knurl. I read somewhere on the forum to use athletic tape to cover the middle of the bar. Now we squat great with it.

[gzt]

Does nobody here have a review of the CASTRO BAR?

[DRice311]

why not google it??

(hehehe)

[veryhrm]

why not google it??

(hehehe)

nice.

BTW, w/ your clarification of what you need out of your new bar i'd say go for a B&R.
1) since you use it for squatting and DLing stiffness and the center knurl would be nice
2) though i've expressed skepticism of York bars previously... after playing some more w/ some York bars at the gym i can see why they consider the style "bullet proof". Any hit to the end of the bar doesn't even touch the sleeve. It's just the end of the bar or the cap pinned to it. So if people are banging the bar around or using it for t-rows the sleeves and their bushings are entirely unloaded and uninvolved.

BTW, does anyone know anything about bars with longer than standard sleeves? (like one might want if one was DLing over 400 w/ cheap bumpers) The web has yielded only scant information.