Bells of Steel Crumb Bumper Plates
Half virgin, half recycled rubber on a stainless insert — 1% tolerance, medium bounce, and a warranty that tells you where the weak plate is.
Specs
| Plate material | 50% virgin, 50% recycled rubber |
|---|---|
| Insert material | Stainless steel |
| Bounce | Medium |
| Durometer | 80 (10 and 15 lb), 78 (25 to 55 lb) |
| Weight tolerance | 1% |
| Sizes | 10, 15, 25, 35, 45 and 55 lb pairs |
| Warranty | 90 days on 10 and 15 lb, 1 year on 25 to 55 lb |
These figures are copied from Bells of Steel’s own published specs and were last checked on 2026-08-31. Manufacturers revise products without notice, and variants differ. Confirm anything your decision depends on with Bells of Steel before you buy.
Choose this one if
- You drop the bar and need plates that can take it
- You want a stainless insert rather than a plain steel one
- You are buying the heavy plates and skipping the small ones
The detail
The warranty tells you everything about this plate range: 90 days on the 10 and 15 lb, one year on everything heavier. That is not a hedge, it is physics. A small bumper has very little rubber around its insert, so a drop concentrates the whole force into a thin ring. Every manufacturer's small bumpers fail; Bells of Steel is being unusually direct about the timeline.
The practical consequence: do not drop 10s or 15s alone on the bar. Put 45s on first and use the small plates on the outside.
A stainless steel insert is the upgrade over a plain steel one. The insert is what takes every impact and every slide on and off a sleeve, and stainless does not rust when a garage plate spends a winter next to a damp wall.
Fifty percent virgin rubber is the middle of the material spectrum — better than pure recycled crumb like PRX's Color Fleck, short of 100% urethane with its lifetime warranty. Durometer 80 and 78 puts it on the softer side, which is where "medium bounce" comes from: softer plates deform more on landing and give some of it back.
Medium bounce is the one behaviour to be aware of. A high-bouncing plate throws the bar back at you after a miss, which is exactly when you have stepped away and are not watching. It is manageable; it is not the low bounce of urethane.
One percent tolerance is good and consistent across the range — better than the 2% Bells of Steel allows on the small urethane plates.
A 55 lb bumper is unusual and useful: fewer plates per side to reach a heavy total, which matters when your loadable sleeve is filling up.