Everything’s bigger in Texas.
Especially the shipping. Although the bars from Get Rxd are very reasonably priced, the shipping to California end up killing the deal for me. They don’t really ever have sales either, so when I had the chance to buy a demo bar from this year’s CrossFit Games, I took it. I pay for most of this stuff out of pocket, so I’m all about the discounts. Only, the Stealth bar that I actually wanted had already sold, leaving me with only Get Rxd’s newest option, the 8-Bearing Texas Bar. At the time I was kind of bummed, because the display Stealth bar spun like crazy, had really nice knurling, and the cool looking band groove. In hindsight, I’m glad I ended up with the Texas Bar (though I’d still like to try the Stealth Bar out).
The first thing that threw me off about the Texas Bar was that it looks almost identical to the X Training Equipment Elite Bearing bar that I reviewed a long time ago; probably one of my least favorite bars. The knurl pattern on the Texas Bar is similar, still has inconsistencies but just isn’t nearly as bad as the X Training’s was. Knurling is a preferential thing for people; for me, it just has to be uniform. Grip is the first thing that affects your CNS when you pick something up, so a barbell has to be comfortable to hold. Though the knurling isn’t perfect on the Texas Bar, it medium depth does provide ample grip and never actually hurts to hold. It’s a bit “scratchy” feeling, but hard chrome coating’s usually do feel a little less smooth than zinc does.
If you based buying bars purely off how the the sleeves spun without load, I doubt anyone would flock towards the Texas Bar. For having 4 oversized needle bearings per sleeve, they don’t spin for nearly as long as you would think they would. Under load, it’s a whole different story, the Texas Bar is surprisingly one of the smoothest bars I’ve used. You never feel the bearings roll the shaft through when you do any kind of Oly lift; it’s a very seamless feeling. Granted, it’s still not a speed demon of a bar, but not even in competitive weightlifting is that even a desirable trait. Just proof you shouldn’t buy a bar solely based of how long the sleeves spin for.
Thank the lord Get Rxd didn’t stick with the whole “everything’s bigger in Texas” mantra with the shaft diameter. Here you’ll find a 28mm IWF spec shaft diameter with a 190k tensile strength. I don’t know what goes into the metallurgy of these bars to make them so pliable, but the Texas Bar has excellent whip. Something I was NOT expecting, but it quickly made the Texas Bar an easy choice for me to use for olympic lifting and never bounced around so much that I couldn’t use it for squatting. The shaft and sleeves are fully finished in hard chrome. Putting metal plates on has already put some divots in the sleeves, but otherwise they’re holding up pretty well. Get Rxd offers a lifetime warranty on this barbell. It’s designed in the United States, but is not manufactured here. The Texas Bar costs $290 in it’s 8-bearing option, and that doesn’t include shipping. Getting it from Texas to California costs about another $40 on top of that, and for that price it puts it in contention with a lot of very good big name barbells; more than some equally good cheaper barbells. Even while looking at it from a consumer standpoint, it’s hard to not go for the cheaper Stealth bar they sell, which looks better on paper. I’m sure these factors will keep the Texas Bar out of many hands.
Surprised is the best way to describe how I feel about the Texas Bar. I remember actually wanting to take it back to the Get Rxd tent at the games, but I’m totally glad I just stuck it out and used it. Knurling inconsistencies and price aside, the Get Rxd Texas Bar is one of the more enjoyable barbells I’ve used; lifting on it has been a pleasure. Sure it’s not the most refined barbell, but it’s got a lot of southern charm, making it a very American barbell.
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