REP fitness Excalibur stainless steel bar vs Excalibur bar

This is a comparison between the REP fitness stainless steel excalibur bar and the REP fitness Excalibur. Follow the links for more details.

Overview and review of the REP Excalibur barbell

This is an overview of the REP fitness Excalibur barbell including the pros, cons, and alternatives. This article was originally posted in which barbell to buy from REP Fitness. Follow the links for more information.

Rep Excalibur $289

The rep Excalibur barbell is a middle-of-the-road barbell from REP fitness with average knurling, bushing on the sleeves, and 215K tensile strength. The main distinguishing feature of this barbell is its lifetime warranty which makes it a good commercial buy. Home gym warriors might opt for a REP fitness barbell with a 5-year warranty but get some better features like aggressive knurling, a center knurl, or bearing on the sleeves.

28.5mm diameter (25mm for 15 kg bar)
20kg Length: 87.4"
15kg Length: 79.13"
20 kg (45lb) or 15kg (35lb) option
1500 lb static rating
215k tensile, 205k yield
Bushing sleeve construction
Very mild ribbing on sleeves to keep plates in place
No Center Knurl or Center Knurl Option
Medium/Deep Knurl
Dual Knurl Markings - Powerlifting and Weightlifting
Lifetime Warranty

This is a good choice if a lifetime warranty seems like an attractive feature for you. Otherwise, I would steer clear of this barbell and go for the Gladiator WL or MX in the same price range or the sabre barbells if you want to save some money.

Pros of the Rep Excalibur

The pros of the REP Excalibur barbell are:

Warranty
Well balanced design

The lifetime warranty and the well-balanced design make the REP fitness Excalibur barbell a good option for anyone who wants to buy in stockpiles for commercial use. This barbell can be used for anything by anyone and if they break you have a warranty to cover it. If that is what you think makes a great purchase for your use case go ahead and know yourself out. For a home gym warrior, this might not be the best way to spend their money on a barbell.

Cons of the Rep Excalibur

The cons of the REP Excalibur barbell are:

No center knurl
No aggressive knurling
No bearing
Imported
No color options

Sorry for the long list of negatives but while I think that the Gladiator WL and MX are good design ideas for a home gym user, I personally think that the REP Excalibur is a bit of a bad choice. You are mainly paying about $100 more compared to sabre barbell for a lifetime warranty on a piece of equipment that is fairly hard to break. In return you get no cool stuff like a center knurl, bearing sleeves, or extra color options. Unless you work with big beginner classes for CrossFit that are likely to be all over the shop with their barbells, I would not recommend this. Either go for the sabre bar for yourself if cost savings are what you have in mind or look for a more specialized barbell like the Gladiator MX or WL when you have the budget, but want to treat yourself.

Alternatives to the Rep Excalibur

Alternatives to the REP Excalibur barbell are:

The black sabre and REP sabre barbells are in my opinion better all-purpose barbells for someone on a tight budget or who want to buy in bulk. Of course, the quality of the barbell and the warranty significantly drop when you look at the specification side by side, but they still are good barbells for the occasional user or for a gym that doesn't blow them out on a regular basis. If you are mainly using your barbell for powerlifting movements and do not drop it often from overhead go with the sabres. If you intend to drop from overhead and can conveniently assume that a lot of beginners will get their hands on them, go with the Excalibur.

The Rogue Ohio bar is the bread and butter barbell from Rogue. Based on its design there also power bars and deadlift bars available. For a workhorse barbell, go with the basic model that sits around $200. You can spice it up in terms of colors and material for the sleeves if you wish so at a slightly higher price. The biggest pro of this barbell is that it is sourced and manufactured in the US.

The TITAN ATlas bar is the bread and butter model from TITAN fitness and comes in at a lower price than the competition. TITAN fitness also imports its barbells just like REP fitness does. The big difference is that this distributor also has sideshows to the fitness line in agriculture and therefore their resources are spread thinner. With REP fitness you will get a better service due to a higher focus on the fitness community which also comes at a slightly higher price.

Conclusion for the Rep Excalibur

The REP Excalibur only really makes sense if you buy into the lifetime warranty and see an added value to you. If that is not the case go for one of the MIxed or weightlifting specific barbells with a 5-year warranty to get better features for yourself. A commercial buyer might consider the Excalibur, a home gym buyer should maximize their features.

Overview and review of the REP fitness Excalibur stainless steel bar

This is an overview of the REP fitness stainless steel Excalibur bar including the pros, cons, and alternatives. This article was originally posted in which barbell to buy from REP Fitness. Follow the links for more information.

Rep Excalibur Stainless steel $349

The Excalibur stainless steel barbell from REP takes one of their simpler designs and beefs it up with the stainless steel treatment. It is a solid barbell, but not my favorite option in the line up as I think it takes too many compromises at too high a price tag. The full specifications of this barbell are:

28.5mm diameter
Length: 87.4"
20 kg (45lb) or 15kg (35lb) option
1500 lb static rating
215k tensile, 205k yield
Bushing sleeve construction
Very mild ribbing on sleeves to keep plates in place
No Center Knurl
Stainless Steel
Medium/Deep Knurl
Dual Knurl Markings - Powerlifting and Weightlifting
5 year warranty

This bar neither has an aggressive knurl or bearing sleeve construction for a better spin. More than $300 in the REP barbell portfolio is a good bit of money for a bar that does not really know what it wants to be. To top it off there is also no center knurl. You pay a premium for the stainless steel without actually addressing any specific Oly lift or powerlifting needs.

Pros of the Rep Excalibur Stainless steel

The pros of the Excalibur Stainless steel barbell are:

Stainless steel
Price
Will not offend anyone

The main thing this barbell has going for itself is that it is stainless steel and therefore will not rust as quickly as other barbells which are not. Especially if you are training in a hot and humid climate you should look for stainless steel to get the most out of barbell's life span.

The price for this barbell is good considering that it is stainless steel. But this can also be said for the other stainless steel barbells out of the REP fitness portfolio which in my opinion provide a clearer profile of what needs they want to cover rather than not making a decision of whether they are going to be an all-round barbell, powerlifting, or weightlifting barbell.

A good thing about this barbell is that it will not offend anyone if you buy it in bulk for your gym. The knurling is mild, no center knurling means less rubbing off the back or shins and no bearing means that it won't spin too much for people who only use it for the squat, bench press, and deadlift.

Cons of the Rep Excalibur Stainless steel

The cons of the Excalibur stainless steel are:

No aggressive knurling
No bearing
Imported
No color options

For a barbell from a low price vendor for $300 i personally think you should not spend the money without deciding for a clear use profile of your bar. If you want an all-around barbell you can save yourself $100 to $150 by going for the sabre bar or the REP basic bar. In the $300+ range I would make a clear decision for whether you will be using the barbell mainly for powerlifting or oly lifting and then get either an aggressive knurl bar or one that goes all out on bearing and whip. Why compromise at the upper end of the price spectrum of a vendor?

One big con for patriots will be that this barbell is not being sourced and produced in the United States. If you have problems with that and want to keep the money and the jobs as local as possible then Sorinex and Rogue fitness are better options to do so. These brands also have overseas products in their portfolio but take pains to keep as much of their production and supply chain local to the United States.

Another thing that REP fitness has not figured out yet are color options. While Rogue fitness and TITAN fitness have applied Cerakote coatings to their Ohio bar and Blues city barbell lineup, REP fitness is lagging behind and only offers the Sabre bar in color for now. I am sure they will catch up, but if you want the most flexibility in terms of the material of the sleeves and which colors to go with then Rogue fitness is the better option. What REP fitness lacks in the color department for barbells they make up for in the rack department as here you have more options to choose and customize the color of each single upright.

Alternatives to the Rep Excalibur Stainless steel

If you like the middle of the road approach in the design of the Excalibur bar I would also make the price middle of the road and opt for the Excalibur bar as a non-stainless steel option. If you are outfitting a Crossfit gym in bulk, this is probably a good barbell to choose from as the design is reliable and works in many directions. For a home gym I would possibly not recommend it as ou can treat yourself for the only purchase you are possibly going to make for the next couple of years in the barbell department.

REP Gladiator MX barbell comes in at a similar price to the Excalibur stainless steel but makes a decision to be a better all-around barbell by providing bearing instead of bushing sleeves. If you will be mainly lifting overhead in your home gym or you are trying to build an oly lifting section in your commercial gym, then this is the better option than the Excalibur stainless steel.

The Rogue Chan bar is in my opinion the best hybrid bar between powerlifting and weightlifting that Rogue has to offer. It beaks this up with high tensile strength and an interesting design to keep you motivated. The only downside is that it is rarely in stock and hard to grab. That is why I have a Rogue Ohio power bar at home instead.

The TITAN Atlas bar is the bread and butter barbell model from TITAN without any color options. If you are looking to optimize for the budget this is it. As it is a fairly simple bar you are less exposed to the risk of the looser quality controls which TITAN applies to their products to offer them at the lowest possible cost to you.

Conclusion for the Rep Excalibur Stainless steel

The Excalibur stainless steel bar is a good idea, but too Vanilla for my personal tastes for a bar in this price range. Get something specific to your needs when you shell out more than $300 on a barbell or try to drive down cost as much as possible for an all-around compromise in my opinion. Spending a lot of money on a compromise is usually not a good road to take for being happy with your equipment.