Review

REP Fitness Stainless Steel Black Diamond Power Bar vs Cerakote Double Black Diamond Power Bar

I’ve been using the REP Fitness Stainless Steel Black Diamond Power Bar for a few months, and this has become my favorite bar to use among the ones that I own, and that purely comes down to the knurling. It’s provided me with just the right amount of bite when doing pushing exercises like the bench press, and it grips very well when it’s sitting on me, like during a barbell squat. However, there are times that I feel like I want more, and that’s during pulling exercises like barbell rows and deadlifts. That’s where the REP Fitness Double Black Diamond Power Bar comes into play.

In terms of specs, these two bars are identical. The only difference is the knurling. Whereas the Black Diamond has what REP calls “Deep Volcano / Aggressive,” the Double Black Diamond has “Deep Mountain / Very Aggressive.” When I made my original purchase, I went with the Black Diamond because I was worried that the Double Black Diamond would be too much. That’s because of the Giant Fitness Northland Open Trap Bar that I own. That thing has the most aggressive knurling I’ve ever felt, and every couple of workouts with it, it’ll rip a chunk of callus off, which just slows my entire workout split down because I can barely grip after that. I didn’t want to deal with that here and went with the Black Diamond.

But after owning this, I do find myself thinking that maybe I want a little bit more. This particular Black Diamond is the stainless steel option, which is going to give us the most tactile response in terms of feeling the knurling. It is just bare metal with nothing on it, so we really get to understand the knurling. And because of that, I almost exclusively only buy stainless steel bars. I only own one barbell that’s not stainless steel, and that is the bar that I bought for visitors to use when they come to my gym so they don’t mess up the good stuff.

But for my purchase of the Double Black Diamond, again I was worried that it may be too aggressive, and that could potentially be the case if I bought the stainless steel version. So I made the decision to go with the Cerakote option because Cerakote is an additive process. This is a coating that’s applied to the metal and physically adds a layer of thickness to it. In terms of the knurling, Cerakote can fill in the knurling a bit, making it less aggressive than it would be without it. So if we were to look at the knurling in terms of a scale of aggressiveness between the Black Diamond and Double Black Diamond bars, you’d have Cerakote Black Diamond as the least aggressive, then Stainless Steel Black Diamond, then Cerakote Double Black Diamond, and finally Stainless Steel Double Black Diamond as the most aggressive.

In person, I would say that’s accurate, at least with my two samples. The Cerakote Double Black Diamond is a bump up from the Stainless Steel Black Diamond in terms of knurling aggressiveness. It’s nothing crazy, and upon first impressions, I would say that I wouldn’t mind switching to it for everyday use. I actually think that I like it more than the stainless steel Black Diamond. I can already tell that it’s not crazy over-the-top aggressive and doesn’t just rip your skin off all the time. But again, that’s just first impressions. I’ll have to report back in the future.

That being said, I do want to share that my Double Black Diamond is the worst condition bar that I’ve ever received. There’s a list of things wrong with it. First, during shipping, for some reason the person packaging this bar didn’t feel the need to reinforce one of the ends of the shipping tube and just taped it up. This, of course, allowed the bar to move, and one of the ends ended up slightly damaged. From there, we move on to the black Duracoat sleeves, which have the most terrible, inconsistent coating I’ve ever seen, possibly on any product. It’s super spotty and looks awful. The red Cerakote is better, but not that great. In person, I can see that certain areas of the Cerakote are glossier than others. So again, it’s inconsistent. This bar looks so bad, and I’m sure this isn’t representative of all of them, but it has certainly deterred me from buying another Cerakote or Duracoat bar from REP. From now on, I’ll probably just stick to their stainless steel bars.

So to sum things up, if you want an opinion on the Black Diamond line of bars from REP, the single Black Diamond in stainless steel is a good all-around bar, no doubt about it. But for my personal taste, even as someone who doesn’t like super aggressive knurling that tears your hands up, I think the Double Black Diamond in Cerakote is better. In my short time with it, I already like it more for everyday use, and again, I don’t think it’s overly aggressive. So the logical next question would be, how aggressive is the Stainless Steel Double Black Diamond bar? Is it really that bad? Personally, just from my experience with my two bars, I’m willing to bet it’s not, but unfortunately, I don’t think I’m willing to fund another $400 bar when I already have some good options here.


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VEVOR Sliding Truck Bed Organizer

As I travel more for work, I’m getting more and more annoyed at having to pull stuff from the inside of my truck bed. After some research, I came across a category of products that is essentially a slide platform, which you can load up and pull everything out when needed. There are quite a few options out there, but the one that I landed on is the VEVOR Sliding Truck Bed Organizer. This organizer comes in various sizes, and to figure out which you should buy, you just measure the space between your wheel wells. I own a 2024 Nissan Frontier with a 5’ bed and purchased the 58”x41” option. If you’re in the same boat in terms of fitment, front to back it’s almost exact with only millimeters to spare. Side to side, you’ll have a few inches, but nothing too crazy.

In terms of installation, I have to be honest and say that on paper and looking at the directions, it’s a very straightforward install, and it really is. It’s just tedious. The first step is to install the side rails. This is very straightforward. Just tighten a few bolts. But this is where I ran into my first problem. One of the side brackets was completely bent, so that side rail doesn’t sit properly. I’ve contacted VEVOR and hopefully I can get a new one.

Next, we bring the entire organizer into the bed for a dry fitting. Again, if you have a 2024 Nissan Frontier with a 5’ bed, you should be good to go. Now, because this is a universal product and not made for any particular vehicle, you might run into some issues installing it. There are pre-drilled slots in the mounting bracket for you to use as a template for drilling locations, but that might not work for your truck. You might have to drill some new holes, and that might be a pain because this is some decently thick steel. Again, if you have a similar truck as me, you’ll have no problems with drilling location, but the Frontier’s bed has high and low ridges. Unfortunately, all the pre-drilled slots fall in the low spots. So this part of the install could be better, but it’ll work just fine.

Once you get all your holes drilled, this is where you get to the fun part, as in the most annoying part of the install for me, and that’s installing the riv nuts. Because I don’t have a riv nut gun, I had to do it the manual way that the instructions show you, and it’s just tedious and takes a long time. No doubt, the riv nut installation in the truck bed took the longest amount of time for me. But once you get those in, the install is basically done. You just have to put everything back.

On a side note, you may have noticed that I have a bed mat and decided to install the organizer on top of it. I did this because the mat is easier to clean than the sprayed-on bedliner. It’s also grippier for when I put things on the empty space along the sides of the organizer.

Okay, so with all of that out of the way, how do I feel about this product? Let’s consider that I didn’t get a bent bracket and everything is functionally perfect. I would say that this product is pretty awesome. Obviously, I haven’t used any of the other options on the market, so I don’t have a good frame of reference, but I would say that this product completely changes my use of the truck bed in such a good way. Accessing things that are stored at the back of the bed is so much easier. It really takes close to no effort at all. I just have to strategically place what I need along the edges of the organizer so that I can easily access it.

After using this for a bit, I can only think of a few minor complaints. First is with the sliding mechanism, as it does require some force to move it. I don’t want to say that it’s heavy, because it’s not like I’m struggling at all to move it. It’s more so that pulling the organizer out is an active thing. It’s not going to just easily slide out for you with no force. But again, I’ve never tried any others, so maybe they’re all like that.

The second complaint would be with the surface of the top deck. It’s slightly textured, but that really doesn’t do anything for grip. I can definitely see stuff sliding around on this surface, so I’ll have to look for some sort of rubber mat to put on top of it to prevent that.

Lastly, I personally feel that the side rails and general tie-down system are not all that strong. Clearly, the brackets can bend, but beyond that, it all flexes and moves a bit. The tie-down rings are plastic that fasten to plastic blocks. I’m pretty sure that if you try to use ratchet straps on them and crank down, the plastic threads would just rip apart. This is definitely something that you want to use bungee straps with, just to prevent putting too much force on the tie-downs and to stop lighter-weight items from sliding back and forth. For more secure tying down, I would use the truck’s OEM locations.

Again, those are minor complaints that would not deter me from purchasing this product again. It works great and will make my use of the bed much easier.


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HVO Leg Curl / Extension Machine

I was recently contacted by the company HVO, which makes various fitness equipment, with the hopes of me possibly reviewing their products. After some discussion, we settled on the leg curl/extension machine because it is something that I would actually use as someone who enjoys leg day.

Again, this product was sent to me by HVO for free. But I explained to them that this is going to be an unbiased review with me expressing my own personal opinions.

First, in terms of packaging, everything arrived in one cardboard box. All the parts are bubble wrapped, and mine was largely unscathed, with only one part that had some noticeable scratches.

Installation of this machine is relatively straightforward, as most of it is already pre-assembled, and everything is put together with only a few bolts. The bolts are also well labeled, so you can get the entire thing put together relatively quickly.

As far as the machine itself, it’s relatively compact and is a good bit smaller than a single horse stall mat. This is partly why I wanted this machine. It doesn’t take up too much space, and I felt that it was worth giving up that space in my single-car garage gym.

In terms of use, I’ve only put a few workouts in on this machine, but I would say that overall my experience has been good. I do want to point out that you can use this machine sitting up or lying down, depending on how you set up the pads. I personally only use this machine sitting up to save some extra space. The only reason to make the pads lie down is to do lying leg curls, but with the 24-position sundial, you can basically achieve the same thing sitting up. Lying vs sitting will hit slightly different muscle groups, and you can look that up for yourself, but for my uses, it’s close enough, and I’d rather save the floor space.

Speaking of adjustments, this machine does offer a few different options. The back pad goes back and forth, up and down. The Seat pad’s angle can be adjusted. The thigh roller goes up and down. And you have two sundials to adjust your leg positions. With the larger sundial, I really appreciate that they added position numbers because I do adjust this multiple times a workout to change between leg curls and extensions. There are no position numbers on the smaller sundial, but this isn’t a problem for me because I keep it in the same spot for everything, so it never gets adjusted. I can see this as being annoying if you constantly have to adjust it. Overall, there’s a lot of adjustability with this machine that I think most people are going to be able to make it work for them.

As far as the pads, I really have no complaints here. They are both 2 inches thick and offer adequate stiffness, but are not uncomfortable.

Now, let’s talk about actually using this machine. Personally, I only wanted this machine for doing seated leg curls and extensions, so I have the most experience with that. For these exercises, I think this machine does a great job once you get your proper positions dialed in. I haven’t used a similar machine since I worked out at a commercial gym years ago, so I don’t have a good frame of reference, but I’m so surprised that I can get such a pump and burn from just one 45lbs plate. It can get pretty difficult when doing a lot of reps. That being said, I think this machine would be beneficial for those who don’t own a lot of plates because most people would not need it with these exercises.

In terms of versatility, you technically can do quite a few different exercises with this machine. But some of the more practical options are highlighted by HVO, and I think that this machine is viable for those exercises. For example, you can position the leg roller to sit above your thighs and do calf raises. The machine is actually really functional for this. Then for those who like split squats, again, the leg roller can easily be positioned to give you a place to rest your foot. I really wish that I got this machine sooner because I spent hundreds of dollars on a pair of Rouge leg rollers that attach to a rack. I much prefer to use this HVO leg roller because it’s already there, and there’s really no setup time.

Again, overall I would say that this is a good machine, but not all is perfect. There are a few minor things that I think can be updated. First, there are two little square tubes that are used as storage locations for the thigh rollers and back pad. What I don’t like is that it’s just metal-on-metal contact. Over time, this black paint is going to get destroyed and I think these areas are going to be prone to rusting. I say this because my machine already shows signs of rust internally. This is something exclusive to this particular product, but really any gym equipment that’s imported can show signs of rust because it’s sitting in a container for potentially months, going over the ocean, then sit some more in a warehouse for who knows how long when it hits the US. So I’m not necessarily knocking HVO for this, I’m just saying that if this area gets scratched up, it too may start to develop some rust. My next complaint is with the selector pin for the smaller sundial. For some reason, when some weight is added and the machine is in use, this pin constantly makes a popping noise. It’s something that I’ve personally gotten used to, but is an annoyance nevertheless. Lastly, the handles that are attached to the back pad of my machine are angled weirdly. This is because the circular couplings that they attach to are welded unevenly. This is one of those fit and finish things that separates products. Aside from looking weird, I also don’t like how these handles are just held in place by a small bolt that loosens very easily under use. From my experience, it’s basically impossible to tighten these handles down and not have them wiggle out of place over time. This should definitely be addressed. But luckily for me, I never use this machine lying down, so I never have to worry about this.

And that’s the HVO leg curl/extension in a nutshell. For under $400, I think that this is a good buy. It offers a good amount of versatility for those who want a multipurpose machine and but is also very good at what it’s primarily designed to do, and that’s leg curl and extensions.



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