Olympic Barbell and Collars

[LiveTheMusic]

Recommendations? I bought a metric plate set on Iron Woody ($300 for 150 Kg, -AFTER- shipping ), but the barbell and collars would be another $700 and I can't afford to make that kind of payment without buying on credit (not an option online). I've heard of a few other sites that sell Oly bars for only a few hundred dollars, but I can't remember what they are and searching threads for "olympic barbell" gives me about, oh, almost every thread...

I've already got a rack (with pull-up bar), bench, and, as noted, weights, so all I need are the barbell and collars... Thanks in advance for any help

EDIT: forgot to note, most other threads that -did- have helpful info were too old... links to items that are no longer sold or made don't help much...

[Qen]

Classified ads are your friend!

Depending on your location you can pick up tons of used gear for pretty cheap. Dont let little things like rust on plates deter you. I have been gathering used equipment for a few months now and put together a pretty nice home gym setup for relatively low prices.

[muddy]

Hey LiveTheMusic,

$700 seems completely unreasonable. Are you sure you're not being quoted for a barbell plus another weight set? Sure there are $700 bars out there, but you kinda have to look hard to find the high end ones.

A lot depends on:

1) what kind of lifting do you plan on doing;
2) where do you live?

If you are not doing any olympic-type lifts, and you don't expect the weights to get particularly heavy (>500lbs) any time soon, then I'd second what Qen says and just pick up a used bar cheap.

If you think you would like to do some olympic lifts, a nice bar is worth the trouble in my opinion. Same if you plan on lifting more, it seems sensible to have a bar with a higher weight rating. Or, you just may like the feel of a better-built bar. If you are not in the U.S., it seems the options are a little more limited and pricier for whatever reason.

If you are in the U.S., you should be able to get a really nice bar for around $300 to $350 shipped.

I have used and don't particularly like the Iron Woody bars, or the texas power bar from EFS (though the other EFS gear is great). There is nothing particularly horrible about the iron woody bar, but the knurling and finish is not as nice to me as other options. The EFS bar is not suitable for olympic lifts. I do like it for squatting and such, though. It's ugly, and will tend to rust. You may find that a good thing or a bad thing.

Anyway, I would recommend the Pendlay bars or the Rogue Fitness bars, and both have 20kg bars in the above price range. The knurling on the bar is very nice, the black oxide finish is terrific, the whip and spin is great, etc.

My experience with customer service with both Pendlay (now with muscledriverusa.com) and Rogue has been very good. The lifetime guarantee on the Pendlay bars is pretty hard to beat.

[LiveTheMusic]

Yeah, I thought that $700 was too much, hence why I'm not buying from IWF xD

Pendlay I've heard a lot about on the forums before, but I'd forgotten the name... will check them out for sure. However I did find this bar for $200 that seems pretty good, and I'm getting most of my other stuff from Amazon as well, so... http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/de ... W&v=glance

Worth the extra hundred dollars or so for a Pendlay?

I'm in the US and I'm just starting Stronglifts 5x5 for now, no clue what I'll do next.

[muddy]

I dunno about the Cap bar, I've not used one (to my knowledge).

If the bar is durable enough, how do you quantify the intangibles like the finish, the feel of the bar, and so on? For the majority of the gear in our gym, we had the chance to try out various cages, GHRs, etc., before buying. On the bar, we unfortunately didn't, and we got a few bars before trying (and then buying) the pendlay.

The one pendlay we do have is a 15kg women's bar for some of the women who train here, and I'm envious. [Side note: it seems a woman does not want to use a woman's bar at first, because they resent the idea it is somehow "scaled down". I can understand that attitude, and in fact find it admirable. However, the smaller diameter and the slightly lighter weight for upper body stuff like the OHP eventually wins them all over to using it as it just fits better, and eventually the consensus becomes it's not a "scaled down" but merely different. And in the end, I have to agree - it's too bad more gyms don't stock women's bars as a matter of course.]

Anway, that pendlay women's bar is by far the nicest bar in the place, and I wish I could replace the other men's bars with pendlays. So if I were to do it again, I would shell out the $100 difference, but I could easily see someone deciding it is not worth it to them. *shrug*