Rogue Boneyard Bar Review (2023)

Building a gym in your garage, basement or empty areas of your home saves you a lot of time and money. It also gets rid of many demotivating factors and allows you to work out any time you want, for any duration you can.

The initial setup cost for a home gym might seem a lot if you think of buying all the exercise equipment you know. But that’s not how it is done. You should plan to buy the pieces of gym equipment in such a way that you need to buy the minimum number of machines and yet be able to perform all the exercises you love.

If you plan correctly you can skip on many pieces of equipment to save on initial investment and buy very few versatile machines and yet have a fully functional home gym. But for any gym to be functional, you can’t skip on the free weights, dumbbells, and barbells.

One might say barbells or dumbbells are not that expensive why should we think about their price so much. But when you add up costs of all the barbells, dumbbells, and other necessary installations you would see the prices affect the overall budget significantly.

You can save much on barbells and loadable dumbbells by opting for the boneyard bars instead of regular ones.

Wondering how? Read on. You will get to know that and much more about Rogue boneyard bars.

What are Rogue Boneyard bars?

If you have bought a Rogue fitness barbell or have used one in some commercial gym, you know how particular they are about the quality and finish of their products. It doesn’t mean they don’t get any defective products while manufacturing, it is just that these products don’t pass the quality test and don’t end up in the market.

So, what happens to these rejected products? If it is a structural defect that would affect the performance of the product or the safety of the user, it will be scrapped. But if the defect is just aesthetic in nature, that product will end up in the boneyard.

The Rogue boneyard bars are barbells that may have minor cosmetic issues. These superficial issues might be some stains or flaws in the finishing or some inconsistencies in the knurling. Barbells with such minor, nonsignificant issues are sold by Rogue fitness as boneyard bars.

Rogue Boneyard Bars Review

There is practically and functionally no difference between what a standard Rogue fitness barbell offers and what the corresponding boneyard Rogue bar has to offer. They are basically the same in terms of size, strength, and design.

The standard Rogue Ohio bar with a red shaft, chrome sleeve, weighs 44 pounds and has chrome coated sleeves. The boneyard Rogue Ohio bar with red//chrome finish will be similar in all aspects.

The boneyard Rogue Ohio bar carries a tensile strength of 190K PSI. It weighs 44 pounds and has an overall length of 86.75 inches. That combined with its 28.5mm shaft dia and 2 inches sleeves, makes it an Olympic standard barbell.

The overall design elements like the center knurl, dual knurl marks, sleeve length, etc. for a boneyard Rogue bar are exactly similar to the corresponding standard bar. The only difference would be the finishing of the barbell.

You get the boneyard Rogue bars at a much cheaper price than the standard bars. Due to some minor unnoticeable finishing blemishes on the bar, it reaches the boneyard instead of being sold as a standard bar at full price.

The defects are cosmetic in nature, like varying chrome plating or color coat, or like double track knurling. The non-uniformity of the plating or color is not too much to affect the corrosion resistance capability of the bar. And for knurling defects, the spacing between the cuts might be different but the feel and grip remains the same as standard Rogue barbell.

Build Quality

The rogue boneyard bars are built with care to fulfill all the requirements of a pro lifter. Made using high-tension steel, the bars possess a tensile strength of 190K Psi or above, which confirms the Olympic bar standards.

The shaft diameter, center knurl, knurl marks, shaft and sleeve coating, and other elements that would affect the performance of the boneyard bar are of the same quality as the corresponding standard Rogue barbell.

Rogue fitness is known for its high manufacturing standards. Only the bars that pass all the quality tests except the minor cosmetic ones end up in the Boneyard. The build quality of the Rogue Boneyard bars is comparable or in some cases better than any similar size bar available in the market.

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Aesthetics and Styling

You might think that some cosmetic hiccups that landed the barbell in the Boneyard would affect the aesthetics and styling of the bar. But no, it doesn’t.

Even with the little finishing, plating, or color coating mishaps, or the misplaced tracks of knurling, the Boneyard Rogue bars look as good as a barbell should. The finishing issues, often are too small to notice.

Available in a variety of finish and shaft color combinations you can choose the Boneyard bars to suit the styling of other pieces of weightlifting equipment in your home gym.

Defects

The Boneyard bars do not have any structural defects like cracks, loose sleeves, bends, low strength material, etc. The flaws that lead the bar to Boneyard are cosmetic in nature.

Some stains on the finishing or double-tracked knurling are the most probable defects that you might find on Boneyard bars. You might get a bar with one of these two flaws or both.

Most of these finish blemishes would go unnoticed. Only in the case of black oxide or black zinc finish products, the finishing flaws would be prominently visible to the naked eye.

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Pros & Cons 

Pros

• The performance and strength of Boneyard bars are similar to the standard versions
• Rogue Boneyard bars come at a discounted price
• Bars from Rogue fitness boneyard are great in aesthetics
• Bars are available in a variety of finish combinations
• The knurl marks and center knurl offers help in positioning your hands
• The variance in the spacing of the cuts in knurling doesn’t affect the grip and feel of the knurl
• Even with a few plating blemishes, the bar maintains corrosion resistance

Cons

• There is no warranty on Boneyard bars
• On black zinc or black oxide finish bars, the finishing defects are clearly visible
• They do not specify the bushing type for Boneyard Bars

What to Expect?

Among the many types of barbells and loadable dumbbell bars offered by Rogue fitness, you can choose the one that fits your workout and space requirement. If you do that and then find the corresponding Boneyard bar, you would be getting the same barbell or loadable dumbbell bar you selected just with a little beautification issue.

Even if you get the first quality bar, after a few sessions there would be scratches or marks on the bar. So, why don’t you save some money and go for the boneyard version?

For performance, you can expect similar strength and durability from the boneyard bars as you would form first quality bars.

Pricing & Value 

The seven feet long men’s Boneyard Rogue Ohio Bar with black zinc shaft and bright zinc sleeve weighing 44 pounds and having shaft diameter 28.5mm, costs you $225. The first quality version of the same bar has a price tag of $310.

The price of Boneyard and the standard version of Rogue 28.5MM Bar 2.0 with black zinc shaft and bright zinc sleeve is $225 and $280 respectively.

All the boneyard versions offer similar values as their standard counterparts but cost much less. The price discount on boneyard bars varies around a whopping 20-40%.

Is A Rogue Boneyard Bar Worth The Buy? 

A barbell is not a thing used to enhance the aesthetics of the home gym. Rather the looks of a barbell don’t or shouldn’t have any effect on buying decisions. If the barbell confirms the size and strength requirement, it doesn’t matter if it has uneven color shades or an irregular knurling pattern.

The boneyard barbells offer quality and durability similar to the first quality version. And these come at a highly discounted price. So, we would say, if there is an option of a boneyard bar exactly matching your requirement, then go for it, it is worth the buy.

Verdict

Rogue fitness believes that their boneyard bars are as good as or even better than many companies’ first quality barbells. These bars are guaranteed to reach you in fully functional condition at a heavily discounted price.

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There is practically no difference in functionality or durability compared to the standard counterparts. The boneyard versions present an opportunity to buy top-class bars at lower price points.