Edge Fitness Systems Rickshaw – 1+ Year Review

Last updated on January 11th, 2024 at 12:02 pm

This review was originally written for Garage Gym Life Media.

Why I Needed the Edge Fitness Rickshaw

This specialty bar is essentially a trap bar with an open front and feet that raises the bar off the ground. They named it Rickshaw, because it [pseudo] looks like a rickshaw cart.

In April of 2017, I started going down the path of looking for replacements for my Rogue Trap Bar and my Farmers Walk Bars.

• The farmers bars were clearly made by some dude in his garage, and my tight fitting bumpers and change plates didn’t fit.
• My wife uses the bars, but being that she’s only using 50ish a hand, this makes loading, and picking a pain in the back (literally).
• I typically use my driveway, which is sloped, for the start of my walks. This causes the bars to roll, and again, it’s a pain to load with them rolling and moving. Even when using the sidewalk, we run into the same issues of rolling and loading.
• I have nice iron plates; I don’t want anyone losing their grip, and banging them on the concrete.
• The Trap Bar is rackable, so it’s HUGE and often times, it’s not usable when someone parks on my street, and entirely unusable by my wife because it’s too cumbersome to move.
• Having to load the trap bar or an Olympic bar for deadlifts, then unload, and reload the farmers bars for carries, takes an excessive amount of time. I HATE set-up time in my routines.

Primary Use

I primarily used the trap bar for shrugs, deadlifts, and carries. The farmers bars were entirely used for carries. I do not compete in Strongman. I just like lifting stuff and think weighted carries are an excellent bang for your buck exercise that matches PERFECTLY with the garage gym life.

We currently own the majority of the specialty bars offered by Rick from Edge Fitness Systems, so when I stumbled across the Rickshaw, I was pretty sure I had found the match.

Enter – The Rickshaw…

The Feet & Handles

The feet are the huge selling point here, making loading and adjustments a breeze. They also seem to negate the issues with most trap bars where they roll out of place, or you struggle to find the right grip set-up: not too far forward or too far back. The feet allow you to load 45lb plates, (or bumpers), without any need for a jack, or for lifting either side. The feet make set-up and takedown a BREEZE on this bar. 45s slide on and off without any extra maneuvering or adjustment. This is especially nice when we start loading the Hundos on the bar!

I was concerned about the flat feet making deadlift reps a pain, much like hex plates, but that’s not the case. As long as your form keeps you locked in, (and let’s be honest, it should), you are solid. The first time I did reps with the bar, my technique was a little off. Set 2, 3 etc., were no issues. I’ve done AMRAP sets of 20 without problems as well. My wife does both deadlifts and carries with the bar; no problems. Since the feet aren’t helicoptering like hex plates, it’s really not an issue.

Dimensions

The bar has about 26 inches between handles, which is middle of handle to middle of handle. At 6 feet and 250 pounds, I fit just fine. My wife is roughly 5 feet 6 inches and 140 pounds, and she uses the bar just fine as well. If you are a TANK of a human being, or are a little more on the petite side, you might want to do some measurements.

There is no knurling on the handles, which is common for specialty bars, but just be warned for heavier sets. Straps and plenty of chalk are likely a requirement.

• Note: I’ve heard of others adding grip tape or using truck bed liner to add “knurling” to their bars. I’ve yet to go down that path, but keep that in the back of your mind if you NEED knurling.

Sleeves

The bar has room for about 6 45s per side (5 and collars), and that’s with my deep-dish plates. If you have slimmer plates, you should have no issues loading the bar up appropriately. The sleeves are just shy of 12 inches in length. They are just a TINY bit tilted inward as well. We are talking a few degrees. Rick does this design on purpose. The nice part here is for deadlift only sets; collars are likely rendered unnecessary until reaching the very ends of the sleeves.

The sleeves are 2 inches in diameter on the money. The Prolocs don’t work. They don’t get anywhere near tight, but they also don’t work on my SSB or other specialty bars. So, you’d need axle or compression collars.

Misc. Notes

Downsides, for weighted carries, the bar is [pseudo] one sided (due to the open front). This means you either carry it backwards every other set, or you do a quick 180 turn at the end of each set. Backwards isn’t bad for lighter sets, but I wouldn’t do it for a PR.

The bar weighs 50 lbs., but it would be nice if it was an even 45. However, I’ll take 50 over 30, or those weird amounts you get on CAP bars like 34 or 27.

Storage

The worst part of this bar so far, is storage. I can’t quite find a solid place to put it as its short and boxy. So, hanging on the wall, it sticks out a ways. And on the floor, it takes up a lot of room. What this has done though, is force me to use the bar for things like dips, push – ups, rows, pike planks, and shrugs. So, I just get more out of it.

It currently fits slightly under my GHD on one side, so it’s not TERRIBLE. But if anyone can recommend a storage solution that I end up implementing, I’ll seriously send you $50 (I’m not kidding). The key for me here is, I’d like it out of the way, but still easily accessible to my wife. She often lifts midday when I’m at work. If the bar is somewhere that she struggles to get it down from, she just won’t do her weighted carries. Not a good solution.

Edge Fitness Systems Rickshaw vs. The Market

Originally written for Garage Gym Life Media.

If you have watched my Instagram or YouTube or read or watched my reviews on the Edge Fitness Systems Rickshaw, you probably know I love this thing.

If you don’t know what it is… the Rickshaw is essentially a trap bar on raised feet. This allows you to load 45lb plates without any adjusting, kickstand, etc. necessary. It is often used for weighted carries and deadlifts, but I’ve used mine for dips, rows, and a bunch of other random stuff too.

When I originally purchased my Rickshaw back in June of 2017, I had a few objectives. To be able to replace a trap bar, a set of farmers bars, and do deadlifts as well as weighted carries with one bar. The weighted carries needed to be able to function well out of my garage, in my garage, on my driveway, on my sidewalk, with cars parked near bye or not, etc.

Solution!

The Rickshaw solved these problems. Whether it was me, my wife, or friends using it, it was easy to move, to use, to load up, to carry, to lift, to put away. Never an issue with uneven pavement, or problems with varying strength lifters, etc. It has been the most consistently used specialty bar in my gym since we bought it.

So you are now asking, well then what am I reading this article for?

Great question! When I bought the rickshaw, the options on the market didn’t look like the options today. You now have the trap bars from Kabuki, Eleiko, Intek, and more that have kickstands. The kickstand makes the bar SUPER easy to load up. So the question is… in today’s market, if I was looking for a new trap bar type bar for carries and deadlifts, what would I buy?

The Kickstand

In 2019 the market exploded with a bunch of high end trap bar offerings. The days of left-over pipe and sloppy welds to make a hex shape were over. We now had premium trap bars made to hold 1000lbs+, that looked as good as they performed. They also addressed the number one issue with a trap bar… loading. The bar is often touted as a back friendly alternative for deadlifts, yet loading was a pain in the… back!

Typical bar jacks didn’t work well, so you had options like deadlift wedges, or just hiking up a plate. The kickstand solution is pretty brilliant. You simply roll the bar forward, it is now up off the ground enough to load a 45lb plate (or bumpers), and then roll it back. No jacks, no wedges, no back ache.

This piece added nothing to the structure or frame of the unit, meaning you didn’t even have some janky piece hanging off the side.

So the question is… what is better, the feet of the rickshaw, or the kickstand of a trap bar? I’ll address this based on exercise selection.

Deadlifts

The most common use for a trap bar is deadlifts. As much as I love my rickshaw, I think the trap bar wins here. The downside of the rickshaws feet are that you are lifting off of, and placing back down on, the feet, with every rep. The chances that you hit just a few millimeters forward or back or side to side is pretty common. This means the bar is now slightly to grossly out of position for the next rep. Doing a 20 rep set? Get ready for that bar to end up everywhere. The trap bar, since you are deadlifting off the round plates, doesn’t have this issue.

The other benefit to the trap bar is that since the kickstand gets out of the way, the bar sits lower to the ground for deadlifts. Thus, you are a little closer to the range of motion of a traditional deadlift. Important in case you still care about your powerlifting total. The Rickshaw with its static feet mean the handles are high up all the time. So your pulls are a little more like rack pulls than from the floor pulls. You can stand on blocks, but you now just added a set-up piece to overcome an issue with design.

For deadlifts, the new trap bars with a kickstand win.

Weighted Carries

For me, weighted carries are meant to be done outside. In the winter I will do them inside as needed, but outside in the open air where your neighbors can watch you be “that guy” is where they are intended to be done. The rickshaw with its static feet make loading plates on sidewalk, on grass, on turf, on driveways, on rock, on literally any surface, simple. If you happen to lose your grip and drop the rickshaw, it falls on the feet and your plates are good to go.

With a trap bar, you still need a level and clean surface for the kickstand to work. Not very user friendly for outdoor use. And if you lose your grip, your plates are going to take a beating from the outside concrete.

Add to this that the feet make switching between athletes, or just ramping up weights, just slightly easier than a kickstand, and dramatically easier on different surfaces, and the rickshaw is the hands down winner for weighted carries.

Other Exercises and Considerations

Both bars have the option for rows, both bars could be loaded up and used for L-Sits, shrugs, Dips, and more. The rickshaw certainly makes some of these easier, because the feet are permanent, meaning no need to load a few plates to get it up off the ground. But, the rickshaws permanent feet make it a little more annoying to store. I shove mind under my GHD, but a traditional trap bar would go against a wall or in a vertical bar holder pretty easily.

Between the two, I think they are fairly even in the “other” category.

So, which one?

In an ideal world, I’d love to see someone make a kickstand trap bar with removable feet. Some pop-pins or something to add in and remove the feet, and you now have the ultimate unit. Easy to store, easy to load, good for deadlifts, good for carries, good for all the other exercises you can think of.

Since I haven’t seen that yet, I’m currently sticking with my Rickshaw. If I was buying today for my personal gym, I’d take the rickshaw again and again. My wife and I both do weighted carries every week, and we do them off the driveway and sidewalk, so the feet are crucial. I can live with the slightly less ideal deadlift set up, for the headaches it removes from weighted carries.

So the moral of the story is… if you are only looking for a deadlift alternative, grab a nice new trap bar with a kickstand. If you want weighted carry options, grab a rickshaw… and if you make equipment, could you make me a kickstand trap bar with removable feet?

Wrap Up

Check out my other Edge Fitness Systems reviews with the Cambered Squat Bar, Safety Squat Bar, and Football Bar.

💲You can grab your own Edge Fitness Systems Rickshaw at this link.

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