Re: Advice on what Olympic bar and bumper plates to buy?

[Guest guest]

For good quality equipment a low prices try www.jesupgym.com. We have

purchased bars and bumpers from them for our high school weightroom and Mel used

to

mention them as having good training equipment at low prices. You may want to

check the archives for his advice on the subject.

Craig

Freeport, Illinois

>> I am planning to buy a bar and bumper plates for olympic

weightlifting. Who makes the best bar and plates and how much should

I expect to spend. Also, does who makes a less expensive yet high

quality " best value " equipment?

Thanks,

Tom Rankin CSCS

Rocklin, CA <<

[Guest guest]

Hi Tom,

You're living in California right? The closest place I know of is Nevada

City. That's where Ironmind Enterprises Inc is. They sell Eleiko and York

sets/plates/bars. If I were you, I'd get a 182.5kg set and just pile up the

rest of my inventory with cast iron plates from SAFE USA. They go for less

than a dollar per kilo. I'd probably get like 10++ 20kg iron plates. But

then again, that's only if I had that much cash to burn. One 182 kilo set is

around US$3000, which would be $6000 Singapore Dollars. International

Shipping is like US$1800?????? 10 grand Sing Dollars for 1 barbell....

Cheap Bumpers of High Quality? Never heard of that. Perhaps that's why

Olympic lifting is so unpopular?

BTW, will you be building a platform?

Ben Ho

Blk 27 New Upper Changi Road

#14-686 Singapore 462027

Singapore

>

>Reply-To: Supertraining

>To: Supertraining

>Subject: Advice on what Olympic bar and bumper plates to

>buy?

>Date: Thu, 28 Aug 2003 20:04:02 -0000

>

>I am planning to buy a bar and bumper plates for olympic

>weightlifting. Who makes the best bar and plates and how much should

>I expect to spend. Also, does who makes a less expensive yet high

>quality " best value " equipment?

>

>Thanks,

>

>Tom Rankin CSCS

>Rocklin, CA

[Guest guest]

Hi Tom!

Eliko and Uesaka are top of the line bars and bumpers and you'll pay

top dollar for them. In the southern CA area (Van Nuys) Mav-Rik has an

excellent bar and bumpers. Contact Tim Chin at <www.loop.com> or

e-mail at for more info. They are not cheap but less

than Eliko and Uesaka. We have used York and Ivanko bars and bumpers

with success and they are cheaper yet. If you can afford them go with

the best but you will get good value from any of the compaines

mentioned.

Good luck!

Dan Wathen,

Youngstown (OH) State University

In Supertraining , " trcscs " <tkrankin@e...> wrote:

> I am planning to buy a bar and bumper plates for olympic

> weightlifting. Who makes the best bar and plates and how much should

> I expect to spend. Also, does who makes a less expensive yet high

> quality " best value " equipment?

>

> Thanks,

>

> Tom Rankin CSCS

> Rocklin, CA

[Guest guest]

Check out yorkbarbell.com. A 185KG men's elite IWF certified set retails for

$3200. Non-certified sets range from $2510-$2605. A 160 KG solid rubber

disc set retails for $1329. Tom, I'm not sure where Rocklin, CA is, but I'm

certain that it will cost several hundred more dollars to ship from York, PA.

You may also want to check out biggerfasterstronger.com, as their prices are

less expensive, but you will still get hit with mad shipping costs (they are

located in TN).

McCann

Philadelphia, PA

[Guest guest]

Check out yorkbarbell.com. A 185KG men's elite IWF certified set retails for

$3200. Non-certified sets range from $2510-$2605. A 160 KG solid rubber

disc set retails for $1329. Tom, I'm not sure where Rocklin, CA is, but I'm

certain that it will cost several hundred more dollars to ship from York, PA.

You may also want to check out biggerfasterstronger.com, as their prices are

less expensive, but you will still get hit with mad shipping costs (they are

located in TN).

McCann

Philadelphia, PA

[Guest guest]

Tom,

I have recently researched this very subject for stocking my home

gym. I relied heavily on the advice of Cohen, coach of Team

Savannah and recommendations of other trainers. was very

generous to accept my telephone call to his training facility with me

asking a myriad of questions about bumper plates.

The athletes at the Cohen Weightlifting Center in Savannah

have been using Eleiko bars and bumpers. The consensus from everyone

I've spoken with is that Eleiko is the gold standard but they come

with a gold price tag. I believe Mr. Cohen said his team has started

training with York bumpers also. York is still exceptional quality

with a much more reasonable price tag.

Here are some links that may help you determine what's best for your

needs.

Ironmind sells both York and Eleiko training and competition sets.

York 160kg training set: $1349 US

Eleiko 167.5kg training set: $2229 US

Eleiko 185kg competition set: $3249 US

http://www.ironmind.com

York Barbell

http://www.yorkbarbell.com/home.html

Ivanko

http://www.ivanko.com

Eleiko

http://www.eleikosport.com/products.asp

BFS sells some rubber bumper plates also

http://www.biggerfasterstronger.com/catalog/item.ihtml?prod_id=642

Team Savannah

http://www.teamsavannah.org

With all of the OL enthusiasts on this list maybe someone will add

more input from experience with the various manufacturers. Each has

their own specific qualities and " personality " , if ever an inanimate

object can have such a thing.

Good luck,

Savannah, Georgia, US

> I am planning to buy a bar and bumper plates for olympic

> weightlifting. Who makes the best bar and plates and how much

should

> I expect to spend. Also, does who makes a less expensive yet high

> quality " best value " equipment?

>

> Thanks,

>

> Tom Rankin CSCS

> Rocklin, CA

[Guest guest]

Tom,

As the saying goes, you get what you pay for. One of the determining factors

of the quality of a power or Olympic bar is it's PSI (Pounds Per Square Inch

Rating). A good bar will have a PSI rating of 150,000 or more. Bars in that

catagory are ones like York, Ivanko, Eliko, etc. The cost is going to be

around $300 or more.

Bars that cost about $69 will usually have a PSI ratiing of 36,000 PSI. Bars

that cost $200 will have a PSI rating of about 90,000 PSI.

These two articles will give you a more indepth education of what determines

the quality of a good power or Olmpic bar.

The purpose of this article, therefore, is to discuss the reasons why one

Olympic bar can cost $100 and another one $300, and what the tradeoffs are as

you move up the value scale. These quality/price considerations reside in

four major areas

http://216.239.33.104/search?q=cache:7TcdWgT543IJ:www.ivanko.com/article4.pdf+

PSI+rating+of+Olympic+Bars & hl=en & ie=UTF-8

Powerlifters and Olympic lifters ---- we are currently developing a stainless

steel bar with 218,000-PSI tensile strength and sufficient yield strength to

prevent permanent bending.

http://www.planetmuscle.com/articles/5_2/ivanko.html

Kenny Croxdale

Rio Rancho, NM

[Guest guest]

Tom,

First I'll mention that I used to live both in Rocklin, as well as

another location in the Loomis Basin. Indeed you might benefit by

talking to the folks at Ironmind, located up the road, in Nevada

City. They carry both Eleiko and York lines of Olympic competition

barbells.

Depending upon your needs and desires you might consider purchasing a

York Olympic bar with a set of 25K, 20K, 15K, & 10K, composition

plates for $1349. This would be a good way to get started. If you

want to go topline, then by all means go for either the Eleiko or

Uesaka sets but understand you are looking at $3200 - $3800 per set

plus shipping and taxes. The present quality of the top end York

Olympic sets are very close to the previously mentioned sets.

About 4 years ago I had the good fortune to find an Ivanko Olympic

set for sale at a used sporting goods store, " Play-it-again-Sams " .

They were selling the plates for 99 cents a pound plus $65 for the

bar. They belonged to one of the professional basketball players who

had just gotten traded. I subsequently purchased a competition Eleiko

bar with collars and now have a beautiful functioning bar with more

than adequate plates. You might get lucky and find something similar

in the Sacramento area or a trip to the Bay area might also prove

fruitful.

Good Luck,

Ken Largent, CSCS

Bend, Oregon