Store the bar in a dry place when not in use.Originally Posted by Roterhals
Member
I need a quality bar and I prefer the bare steel as well. I live on the coast and my gym is underneath the house since the house is elevated on piers. It’s often hot and steamy and always salty as hell and everything rusts. Coach talked about orange rust that occurs when steel is wet; I get that orange rust on any steel just from the humid salt air. I don’t mind some rust but wonder will a bare steel bar get overwhelmed by this shit?
Starting Strength Coach
Store the bar in a dry place when not in use.
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I wondered something similar to Roterhals. I'm in SE Virginia, right at the mouth of the Chesapeake, and have my gym in a shed that isn't climate controlled. When the weather changes quickly the dew condenses onto everything in there. Rip says don't have liquid water flying around the gym. Mother Nature has her own ideas.
I've been wondering whether to pony up for stainless on my next bar. Rogue makes a SS version of the Ohio Bar that looks appealing, if pricey. Anyone else using a stainless bar in a nice, humid, coastal climate?
Member
You could perhaps get a stainless steel bar.
An other option is "black oxide". It is a "conversion coating", meaning the surface of the steel itself is converted into oxide instead of a coating material being applied over the steel. So actually, it is not like a traditional coating but more like a very thorough blueing to the point where the bar becomes mate black. It won't protect the bar against rust as well as chrome, zinc or cerakote however, but at least it does not fill up the knurling of feel shitty in the hands.
Member
I would say "Yes" it will be rusty in those conditions. The exposed bar you might be able to maintain but the inner sleeve guts might become a mess unless you followed Rip's bar maintenance on a daily basis. I've seen stainless fish hooks rust overnight in conditions like yours.
Member
The women bar is the same in width from sleeve collar to sleeve collar as the men's .... and has always been that way as long as i can remember.
Only the sleeves are shorter.
The distance "between middle of the bar are the plates" are the same. (ref video: The Equipment Episode | Starting Strength Radio #86 - YouTube)
1310 mm between the sleeve collars. Both bars use a 30mm width sleeve collar. 1370mm between plates ...both bars.
https://www.iwf.net/wp-content/uploa...-Licensing.pdf
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I want to say before the 2000 (+/-) Olympics , where women's WL debuted at an Olympics, they just used the men's bar.
That might have been just because women's WL was in its infancy, and the equipment was widely distributed or even known about, in the US and elsewhere.
not 100% on this
Old videos of Karen Marshall, it sure looks like a thicker bar in her hand. (note the pictures of the Chinese lifters using the yellow coded bars are just rando reference photos of chinese females. e.g. "2009" , etc)
TMPHBITEU
Are you guys camping? Do you not live in houses or apartments? Can you not keep the bar INSIDE when it's not being used in the gym?
Member
Many people lift in their garage that is not climate controlled...its fairly commonplace.
I'm not bringing my equipment in and out of the house each session.
Member
It's the van life, RIP. Sometimes the bar has to be strapped to the top of the van or stored outside to free up living space.
Member
I'm in a humid area, I run a dehumidifier non-stop in my basement and it keeps the air dry. If I didn't, I imagine my stuff would rust in the 95% humidity summer days.
Unfortunately I recently had to buy a York chrome bar given limited supply of others. I do like it much better than my $100 bent piece of junk that I had. I notice improvement the most catching the cleans, it rotates nicely. Grip on the chrome seems fine with enough chalk.
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