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160 of 162 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Works surprisingly well!, June 3, 2004
I was very skeptical of this "cantilevered" doorway chinning bar. I thought it would slide, not really stay up, be unsafe or unstable to use. Well, the thing actually works as advertised! It's basically a chinning bar sitting on 2 J shaped braces. The tops of the braces connect with a flat crosspiece. The crosspiece sits on the opposite side of the doorframe, resting on the top of the doorjamb. On the your side of the doorway, the ends of the chinning bar press against the doorframe. Your weight pushes the chinning bar against the doorframe on one side, presses the crosspiece against the doorjamb on the other. I was nervous pulling my 190lbs up on this thing, hearing all kinds of creaking from the doorway...but, in fact it was stable and held my weight like a champ. I live in an old apt., and techinically I think my doorframe is a bit two narrow for the specifications--there are foam pads at the ends of the bar that are suppose press against the doorframe molding. In my case, the doorframe hits the metal bar itself, and the padded ends extend beyond that. Probably not technically as safe as it should be (metal against wood, instead of non-slip foam against wood), but it still works great.I was also scared that since your weight holds it in place, it would fall off while you're not applying a lot of force. So you would have to do some kinda balancing act to hold it in place until you start chinning, and it would fall off as soon you're done. Not so. It rests fairly securely on the jamb, but a quick upward motion removes it right off. If you're paranoid, it comes with a little hook that you wedge in between the molding and the wall that will hold the unit in place while you're not chinning. Two complaints: There are foam grips (including two perpendicular grips), but I wish the whole bar was foamed for a wider range of grips. If you're serious you'll probably want to buy the broad-grip accessory that's sold separately (I have not yet, so far this is plenty). Secondly, there's no assembly instructions, just an exploded view of what screws go where. There's only 4, so that's trivial, but they include some locking washers (2 metal, 2 plastic) that are essential to use, and the diagram does not indicate to use these. Otherwise, a very nice product.
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