Hey,
I just recently bought a Rogue Ohio Power Bar and to my big disappointment, it has grooves on the loadable sleeves. I’ve never seen this before, either on youtube where people use the bar or at commerical gyms.
Here’s what I’m talking about (random barbell with grooved sleeves): http://therxreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Chad-Vaughn-20kg-Barbell-new.jpg
I figure it’s to reduce friction to let you slide plates easier but that’s just me guessing.
It’s more machining so I doubt Rogue would do it for no reason.
Isn’t it more work to create a smooth iron finish? I thought they did the grooves to save money but I’m probably wrong then.
IMO they don’t even slide better, and it makes very loud noise.
I have looked at the power bars in the rogue store probably 10+ times and (while I could be wrong) I do not recall ever seeing grooves like that. I would suggest emailing photos to customer service and seeing if it’s possibly a defect. I can tell you that if it’s a defect, they will replace the bar for free and may even throw in some other free shit if you press the issue.
Mine has grooves too. I looked into a bit and I think it was something they did at one time but discontinued, so maybe you got old stock? Unsurprisingly I was way off base about the groves. The intention was to make collars grip better and minimize movement of plates when you didn’t use them. But I’d like to know the official line from Rogue when you hear from them.
My Rogue Bar 2.0 has grooved sleeves as well, fwiw.
Been in contact with Rogue’s customer support, I asked if they had any barbells without the grooves and this is what they said:
“Our apologies, but all have those grooves. They make it possible to do cleans/DL/BS/FS/bench/press without collars.
If you have seen Ohio barbells without grooves, those sleeves have worn out and become smooth because of usage.”
I’d happily pay extra for smooth sleeves if manufacturing smooth sleeves are more expensive. They have grooves because it’s less CNC’ing so it’s cheaper to make, and they sell it as a “perk”. The plates stick better, especially when you want to load iron 45’s because they have to be perfectly perpendicular or they’ll get stuck and it makes a lot of noise.
I too couldn’t stand the sound of plates on the grooves when I first got my OPB. It was like nails on a chalk board. Fast forward a few months and I’m over it. Not sure if the edge on the grooves wears just enough, or I got used to the sound, but I don’t even notice the noise anymore.
