The Blues Metropolis Energy Bar is Titan’s USA-made deep-knurled energy bar. I received a maintain of it and realized a couple of issues about it that I’m sharing right this moment.
I purchased it on their web site throughout a sale for $270 + tax. Common value is $300. At the moment that places it someplace in the course of the vary of costs for comparable energy bars.
For some context, there are a number of different good energy bars just like this from different firms, such because the Rogue Ohio Energy Bar and the traditional Texas Energy Bar. I particularly needed a 28.5-29mm energy bar with aggressive deep knurling, heart knurling, and clean sleeves. You received’t discover a lot to select from with these specs, apart from a pair $500+ chrome steel energy bars, and I don’t wish to spend that a lot.
First, the delivery and packaging.
Titan had it out the door in 2 days after I ordered, and I obtained it the following week. Good heavy obligation tube. The tube caps are questionable. One cap was like a heavy obligation pie tin held in place with gun staples. The opposite finish was lacking the cap, and the bar was sliding out by itself. The bar’s situation was okay, apart from some scratches and a whole lot of mud, each of which could have been from falling out in delivery. Most bars and weights of any form I’ve purchased from numerous shops don’t arrive in excellent situation, so this was not stunning.
As quickly as I began pulling the bar out of the delivery tube, I cherished the volcano knurling. It sticks to your arms very effectively, extra so than many bars on the market with hill sort knurling marketed as mild or medium, and with out feeling overly sharp. Titan calls this aggressive knurling. It’s not fairly as aggressive what you will see that on the extra excessive bars featured within the Deep-Bite Power Bars Comparison. I would add it to that web page as a substitute.
Sorry concerning the items of lint you see within the pic on the knurl. I uncared for to totally clear it off. I’ve realized it’s not possible to scrub a bar with something however a brush. Fibers of any form from cotton or microfiber towels get caught up within the knurl. I’m additionally going to do higher subsequent time with a close-up element shot of the knurl. That one is a little bit out of focus.
The shaft’s zinc plated end helps protect the grippy really feel and is a reasonably skinny plating so doesn’t fill within the knurl’s valleys like chrome plating can considerably.
One fundamental cause I purchased this bar is Titan informed me that the sleeves are clean, not grooved. Sadly they gave me dangerous data, and I used to be disillusioned to search out grooved sleeves, and the grooves are even a little bit deeper than one other bar I’ve. Deal breaker for me. Titan’s service to arrange the return was nice. They rapidly offered me with a Fedex return label.
I wrote a information some time again on which bars have smooth or grooved sleeves, up to date not too long ago. It’s private choice. I dislike having to jam plates onto the sleeves with a lot resistance and noise from the grooves. The graceful sleeves record is now shorter after transferring Titan over.
The shaft has an uncommon line marked into all the sleek areas I’ve by no means seen earlier than, like within the sample of a rolled knurl however shallow. I don’t know what to make of it. Might be on objective?
The shaft I measured at 29.0mm, however later after I not had the bar I noticed on a shaft with aggressive knurling like this I ought to have measured the sleek half and I in all probability would have gotten about 28.5mm. With lighter knurling the distinction is barely round 0.2mm.
The sleeves are about 49.8mm to 49.9mm. I realized solely not too long ago that bar sleeves will not be 50mm however slightly below, and I thereafter checked out the sleeves of some completely different manufacturers and the way effectively good plates match them. At this level I might say 49.7mm to 49.9mm is nearly excellent. 49.5mm is much less fascinating for my part, the way in which plates match noticeably looser.
The load is marketed on Titan’s web site as “20kg (45lb)”. 20kg is 44lb, and being as this weighs in at 44lb 8oz, I suppose they cut up the distinction. Personally I want bars that weigh a bit below 45lb in order that it comes out near 45lb after I add collars. So this may work superb for me.
The snap ring on the top cap seems to be sleekly put in with the eyelets hidden. I’ve by no means seen that earlier than.
The sleeves have a good building, not a lot slop side-to-side or up-down. Sleeves with a looser match will make extra noise and be extra vulnerable to breaking a snap ring or sporting down the inner elements in case you’re dropping the bar. The sleeves each rotate effectively on the bronze bushings. So all that’s wonderful.
As a result of I returned this bar for the explanation of the grooved sleeves described above, I solely tried it for one exercise of squats and bench presses. The shaft dimension and knurling texture felt excellent, higher than another bar I’ve owned so far.
To sum up, in case you don’t thoughts grooved sleeves and doable blemishes, this seems to me to be a well-made energy bar that feels nice and has excessive tensile energy at 200,000 PSI. 28.5mm or 29mm is for my part the proper dimension for a variety of workouts, and I’ll be searching for one other one with clean sleeves.
