20kg Next Generation Bearing Barbell Black-Silver

I was looking for a sub $300 needle bearing bar. The short list included the synergee and xmark elite... Both import bars. Then I found this bar.American made, needle bearing, cerekoted, good warranty and WAY less then ROUG$ wants for composite bushings, SOLD.Good stuff:Packaging was stout and protected the bar in transit but is seriously flawed. See below.Knurling is way more aggressive then OhioBar. Not full cheese grater but I think it will be perfect for mid summer sweaty hands without chalk.Spin out the box was great but a bit noisy. Sleeves have zero perceivable run out, though there is a bit more side to side play then I was expecting.Cerakote finish is perfect, zinc on sleeves had a bit of color variation but you really have to look for it to see it. Totally acceptable.The Bad:Bar was covered in saw dust/shavings presumably from the end plugs (see photo).The bearings also seemed a bit noisy and one sleeve seemed to have a bit more spin then the other. Upon tear down looking for dust infiltration (which I did find on both sides) I discovered one side had minimal grease and the other practically none. I cleaned and repacked the bearings with SuperLube and applied thin coat to all other internal surfaces. After completing one side I compared spin. Factory side would get 3-4 noisy rotations empty. Repacked would only get 2 but it was completely silent. Loaded with 45s and collars and given a light spin, the factory side would complete 4-5 revolutions with pronounced bearing whir and abrupt spin down. Repacked side easily doubled that, was silent and had a significantly longer spin down time. As a bonus, side to side play was muted and dampened.First workout with the bar included heavy singles on snatch and clean/push press. When dropped from height, my buddies fairly new ROUG$ bars all had that classic CLAAAANG, only somewhat better than our community beater bars. The sound of this bar is dominated by the dull thud of the bumper plates combined with a short ping of the plate collars on the sleeves. I love the bar turn over. We have some serious Oly lifters at our gym... I'm thinking of putting some fake Eleiko stickers on the end caps see if they can be tricked!One selling point for me over the other bars is Wright sells a rebuild kit. As a bonus, the bearings used are available on the open market so even if they go belly up tomorrow I could still service the bar.Summary:Best bang for the buck American made bar on the market, but you gotta give it a once over before it can fulfill its destiny as a great bar.I'm not crazy about the composite inner bushing or the lack of an inner dust shield. I may toss in a few brass bushings to tighten up the side to side play.Overall, I'm very pleased with the purchase.

Comparing to a cheaper no name bar that I've had for 15+ years and a more expensive vulcan bar this is my favorite so far. A little more side to side play in the sleeves than the vulcan but love the finish and knurling. Great value as it's unusual to find an American made barbell with cerakoate coating at this price point. Using in my garage for all lifts including Olympic lifts. As long as the finish holds up well I will consider this an excellent buy.