I bought the farmer's walk bars and a pair of 10 pound Alpha bumper plates. The farmer's walk bars are way above what I hoped for, including snap ring held end caps to close the tubing... just like a good barbell. The bars come with two sets of fair polymer barbell collars but I wasn't expecting it to come with any, so they were a plus. The only issue I have with the bars is the powder coating... it is fairly slick. Collars don't have a rough surface to grip. The bars are standard olympic barbell diameter (not 1.9" pipe diameter) but even my Lock-Jaw Pro2 collars slip. It would be nice if the powder coat was a little rougher. The grips are knurled with a medium knurling and are about 1-1/4" diameter. They offer a good grip but do require good grip strength as the weight increases. The welds are good and I have no worries that the bars will ever fall apart! The bars have 11-1/2" on each end for weight plates, which is a capacity that will far exceed what I can possibly carry. Overall, I am very happy with the farmer's walk bars and recommend them. The Alpha plates are really nice. I was initially a little skeptical because they seem overly flexible. After looking at them further, they are a little fatter than my other 10lb. plates, especially around the steel insert. The thickness extends away from the insert for a lot longer distance than my plates from another manufacturer, which will add some structural stability around the insert. They are smaller in diameter than a standard bumper by two inches, which means they will never touch the floor unless they are on a bar by themselves, which I don't do. Vulcan states that they can be dropped alone without worry and I will simply take their word on that. They are beefy and I think they will hold up very well. I think they will hold up for a long time.