Oct 2023 Update – Removed a couple discontinued bars, added new Titan bars, added new specs, revised the description of all.
You can spend $300 (or much more) on a new bar if you really want to. If you aren’t picky and just want something decent, something cheaper should work for you.
You do need a good bar and not a total cheapo bar selling for $115 or so, the type included in a basic 300 lb olympic weight set, for a few reasons I’ve gone over elsewhere. Here are some reasonable “budget” choices that you might even hang onto later after you’ve gotten a more expensive bar.
Table of Contents
All of the bars below are 7ft long and weigh 45 lbs or 44 lbs (20kg), the right size for a general purpose bar that will serve well enough for all barbell movements.
Scroll right to see all 6 bars.
| Bells of Steel Utility Bar | Get Rx’d WOD Bar 5.0 | Rogue Boneyard | CAP OB-86B Beast | Titan Performance Series (Olympic) | Titan Performance Series (Power) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Diameter | 28.5mm | 28mm | 28.5mm | 28.5mm | 28mm | 29mm |
| Finish | Black Zinc | Black Zinc | varies | Black Zinc Phosphate | Chrome | Chrome |
| Tensile Strength (PSI) | 190,000 | 190,000 | 190,000 | 130,000 | 165,000 | 165,000 |
| Spin | Brass Bushings | Bronze Bushings & Bearings | varies | Steel Bushings | Bronze Bushings | Bronze Bushings |
| Knurl Rings | Dual | Dual | varies | IPF | Dual | IPF |
| Knurl Pattern | Hill | Volcano | Volcano | Volcano | Volcano | Mountain |
| Center Knurl | Yes | No | varies | No | No | Yes |
| Sleeves Surface | Grooved | Grooved | Grooved | Grooved | Grooved | Smooth |
| Price | $199.99 | $170 | $190 | varies | $149.99 | $149.99 |
The founder of BoS started the company in 2010 selling push sleds and kettlebells in Canada, and over the years they added a large selection of heavy-duty equipment and expanded to a US location in 2018. I’ve bought plates from them. Good experience.
This is the one bar featured here with the passive “hill” knurl that slides easily in your hands. A few years back, that was the standard knurl for bars in this price range. Now most of them have moved to a better volcano knurl. I recommend you only get this bar if that’s the kind of knurl you’re looking for. Nothing else really stands out to make this bar the best choice.
BoS says these are brass bushings. I wouldn’t stake my life on it, but I believe that’s incorrect. Brass is an alloy of copper and zinc and makes for a soft, decorative metal that can’t hold up in applications like this. Bronze is an alloy of copper and tin and is a harder metal that is more commonly used for strong bushings in all kinds of industrial applications and has a lower friction coefficient against steel to let it spin nicely. Granted, there is a grey area in some alloys that that include copper, zinc, and tin. The point is I think these have to be bronze bushings and you shouldn’t worry about it.
Needle bearings!
Get Rx’d is a Houston, TX company that has been selling equipment since 2011, mainly targeting Crossfitters. Prior to that they sold some home-grade weight machines under the name Multisports.
Alongside the brass bushings, this bar has needle bearings, which is amazing to see at this price point. This gives it a really good spin. It also has an exact 28mm diameter shaft. If you do olympic lifts, this is one you should consider.
The inside collars have Get Rx’d branded black silicone bracelets that can be replaced with your own if you want better identification or customization. They mention this but offer no color options or even any bracelets you can buy separately. Rogue sells some in a few colors.
Made in the USA!
You can very often get a Boneyard Bar in Rogue’s closeouts, which have cosmetic blemishes off the production line but are otherwise fine. Some people have reported that the bar looked so good they weren’t even sure what blemish it had.
I’ve seen Ohio Bars listed there for under $200. If you don’t see one at the moment, check again in a few weeks. I see some available more often than not.
Considering the consistently high resale value of Rogue bars, you should consider these. Plus, they’re the only bars on this page made in the USA.
The Rogue Echo Bar used to be a good choice under $200, but they have since jacked up the price.
CAP re-branded the OB-86B in 2015 with a green “Beast” label on the ends. The other change was the black oxide coating is now black zinc phosphate. Other than that, it’s the same bar they’ve been selling for years.
I believe C.A.P. stands for Chinese Athletic Products. They make a few decent products, and their price points are low even on them. Most notably their line of barbells is good, and some of their dumbbells and weight plates are fine. Other products of theirs like benches and various accessories are cheaply made and not anywhere near the level of quality I like to recommend.
I had this CAP bar for a while for my own use. Note that I only cleaned 205 and deadlifted 315 on it. There’s very little rattle on the sleeves. I had no problem with the grip. The knurling is average. The zinc phosphate coating didn’t start to wear off as quickly as the black oxide coating on my previous bar.
The bodybuilding.com forum has a thread devoted to this bar, with links to reviews as far back as 2010.
On the downside, this bar is very dated. The tensile strength is not up to the standards of modern bars. It uses steel bushings, which have a higher friction coefficient with the steel sleeves than any other bushing material. Several years ago it was a good bar for the price, for light lifting. It’s when you have to drop a bar on the safety bars of a rack, or you drop it badly cockeyed on the floor with bumpers, or bounce hard out of the hole during a 400lb squat (yeah, most of us don’t have that problem), the low 130,000 PSI might show itself with a bent shaft. Unless you find a great sale price, you can get a better bar for the money.
Best value!
This sort of replaces Titan’s discontinued Atlas Bar as their lowest priced decent bar. To save on cost, they switched to weaker steel and bronze bushings instead of bearings.
One upgrade is a better volcano knurl texture to replace the softer hill texture. This has become the industry standard.
They also split the bar into two different versions: the Olympic version here with a thinner 28mm shaft, and the Power version below with a few other spec changes.
The price here is the big selling point. As of writing (2023), it was only released a couple months ago and has not stacked up many reviews yet to give a clear picture about quality. If there are no surprises, this bar blows away the others in value for the money.
Heads up: Titan’s close-up knurl pics appear to be mistakenly swapped between this and the below bar, while the specs are correct, volcano for this one and mountain for the below. It wouldn’t make any sense otherwise.
Best power bar!
The only bar here with the extreme “mountain” knurl pattern, which means each square of knurl comes to a sharp point. This is used only in some power bars for lifters who want the most secure grip, at the expense of comfort with the way it digs into your hands.
Plus, features like the single set of IPF spaced knurl rings, the strip of center knurl for keeping it secure on your back for squats, smooth sleeves instead of grooved, and a 29mm shaft, make this a classic power bar. You would normally be paying around $300 for a power bar like this.
As I mentioned in the above section, Titan’s close-up knurl pics appear to be mistakenly swapped between their two bars, while the specs are correct, mountain for this one and volcano for the other.
View Comments
Just wondering why you don't include any of the XMark barbells? I was able to get a Crow bar during the pandemic, it was one of the few barbells available. It has served me well!!
Thanks for the suggestion! I'll make a note to add it here on the next update.
I purchased the Bells of Steel Utility Bar earlier this year to use as a beater bar to keep my stainless steel bars in good shape. Find myself using the bar for more than I expected, not just rack pulls and landmine work. Grip is better than I expected. Much better than some previous bars I had at higher price points.
Very useful feedback, thank you! It can be hard to guess how the grip is going to be with some of these until you've got it in your hands.
Saw you updated the list for 2021, the 45lbs Rep Sabre bar is now $229. Might want to shift the article to the best bar under $250
Ok, I've put it on my to do list! I agree, it looks like it's time to move the price up. I should try to add another bar under $250 at the same time. I had to remove a couple before that went up. I'm getting the feeling that I may have to keep doing this kind of shifting up for a few articles if we start seeing inflation hit the gym equipment market.
Got a boneyard black Cerakote Ohio power bar for $195 on Black Friday
Nice score! The only boneyard cerakote bar I see right now is $275.
This is a very useful article on olympic bars and your rundown as well as their reviews and features. Thank you for sharing this.
Excellent article man. Very well put together. Thank you. I have a home gym and just purchased a light industrial squat rack. I need a good bar. Not doing whips and cleans and jerks and all that whacky CrossFit mess. Just squats and presses. Any of these bars you think is best just for that? Thx!!
I'd say the Wonder Bar will work out the best. Everyone seems to love it.
Wright Equipment is making barbells in the USA that are great values for the money, you might check them out next time you do an article like this. I bought the basic box bar with bearings, $200 or so. Has cerakote & bearings, & for $200, it's a great value for Olympic lifts.
Excellent, I'll check out their bar too and maybe add it here soon!
I think that the Vulcan one basic is an excellent dual purpose/cross fit bar. The quality that goes into all Vulcan bars is hard to beat in the $250 price range. For an additional $35 I upgraded my order to the Vulcan standard bearing bar. It is USA made vs imported and has a lifetime warranty for use in commercial gyms and cross fit boxes, It should last decades in my home gym
Bronze oilite bushings vs bearings on this bar. The spin is very good though. The standard bar is a premium bar under $300
Oops. I did mean the standard bearing version. I haven’t had very long but the knurling is perfect for me and the fit and finish blows away the bars in my local box gym. Now to eventually get a set of bumper plates for safe cross fit workouts. Not a good idea to drop iron weights on the bar.
Hmm, are you sure it was the standard bearing bar? That one sells for $529: http://bit.ly/2CJXOsI
Did you mean the standard bushing? http://bit.ly/2qr4FS9
Anyway, the standard bushing I've heard good things about too. Really well made bars. How do you like it so far?
@ Randy K. 26, June 2017 21:55 comment
Randy K.,
I was in your shoes not long ago... I was analyzing & over analyzing all the lifting equipment options out there...it can be very stressful, especially if you have to stay within a budget & you want to get stuff that will grow with your needs...I am sharing the routes I chose for barbell & bumper plates.
If you can be patient the X Training Elite Bearing Bar 2.0 could be had for much less. Back in March/April it was $199 & the X training Elite Competition bar 2.0 was only $150.
I ended up getting the X training Elite Competition Bar (190k psi bushing) for $134.50 out the door shipped to my house in very strong cardboard tube (no damage). I bought on sale through Again Faster & Joel from "As Many Reviews As Possible" gave me his an additional 10%off promo code for Again Faster. (Find one of his Youtube videos or blog & ask for his most current promo codes). The Competition bar has plenty of spin for me for cleans, c & j. The true 28mm bar made a notice grip difference for me.
My Bumper Plate recommendation is Diamond Pro bumper plates. They have two diffrent styles the standard imported & the crumb bumper plate made in ALabama. The good part is they are both the standard 450mm in diameter.
I can only speak for their import bumper plates, they are awesome! I have the 55lb, 45lb, 25lb, 15lb, &10lb sizes. The 10lb & 15lb are slightly smaller diameter so they don't make contact with the ground on a loaded bar. The 10lb is slightly smaller than the 15lb bumper. All of my bumper plates have been dropped with loads greater than 300+ lbs. from about waist height/finished deadlift height. They have a nice dead bounce.
Walmart.com - Is were I order my Diamond Pro bumper plates...FREE SHIPPING & VERY Competitive pricing. All plates have been delivered to my house free shipping from Walmart via FedEx /Ups & none have been damaged. They are clean not greasy when they arrive. The only downside is Walmart.com is like Amazon, Best Buy etc...if they find you are interested in an item through your I.P address the price can fluctuate + or - 20%. So clear your cookies or go incognito mode to get the best prices.
If you want I can email you pics of the bar & plates...There are so many choices & on paper they all look the same...Best of luck!
Willy B.
Looking for a good bar for Olympics specifically and some squats and other accessory lifts. Based on your review the Get Rxed WOD 5.0 seems the right bar. I was wondering what would you recommend?
Randy, the XTraining bar looks good, but it's way over $200. Normally once you start getting into bearings the price starts shooting up, which is why the WOD Bar 5.0 is unusual.
David
What do you think of the X Training Equipment elite bearing Olympic barbell? With their bar and set of 260lbs bumpers collars comes only to 558 with free shipping on amazon. Watched a review and believe it the best bang for your buck bar under $200.
Randy, yep, that is probably the most popular bar here, and I think it's the best choice because of the bearings. Nothing spins like a good bearing bar.