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So you’ve had enough of prosumer and entry commercial gym equipment and want to delve in to full on, no holds barred commercial specification merchandise? Or maybe you have a very specific design or colour in mind?
Well the great news is that Kustom Kit can help you out. 100% British made, commercial grade gym equipment with each piece made to order.
Here’s what you need to know about their Deluxe Adjustable Weight Bench…
At a glance…
- Kustom Kit bench is awesome – check it out here!
- A full commercial level, 600kg rated adjustable bench
- Best bits: Highly customisable and built in the UK to order
- Worst bit: Lead time can be long given customisations
- Overall a great bench and comparable to a UK-made Legend Fitness #3103 bench
Best bit? CUSTOMISABLE!
Kustom Kit will work with you to create something that matches your EXACT specification. That means shortened power racks, additional bar storage or whatever else you can dream up. If you get in touch – and are willing to pay them for their efforts – you can have it. That is the benefit of fabricating products in house.
Similar brands which offer that degree of customisation and bespoke service in America would be Legend Fitness or Sorinex – but here in the UK we have Kustom Kit!
For the Kustom Kit adjustable bench that gives us a ton of options to think about:
In terms of the frame:
- Frame colour – with 13 different colours available off the shelf you can probably find something to fit in to your home gym. The real question is, did I go for grey, or push the boat out…
- Stainless vs regular wheels – wheels are a must have item, but Kustom Kit offer an upgrade from standard nylon wheels to stainless steel ones. PERSONALLY I don’t think this is essential in a garage gym depending on your flooring, but you may disagree.
And the padding & upholstery:
- Upholstery main colour – Kustom Kit have split the faux leather pad covering in to a ’top’ and then a ‘side’. You can select the colour independently – so here you pick the top of the pad (the bit you lie on)
- Upholstery secondary colour – similar to above, you can pick the colour for the SIDE of the padding. Fancy a contrast? Go for it!
- Upholstery stitch colour – with multiple pieces of faux leather on the pad there are a number of stitching trains. You can select the colour to match your training shoes if you want (who doesn’t want to do that..!)
- Upholstery grip strips – Basically sticky stripes on the padding that help you “grip” the bench with your back.
- Custom logo – Maybe not a big deal for a home gym, but if you have a brand, company or design you like it can be printed on to the padding. Pretty awesome for full commercial outfits, probably less so for us with a single bench in the garage.
Kustom Kit deluxe bench specification
We have covered the customisation options above, but the base spec of the bench all of these bells and whistles are built on is excellent:
Dimensions
The vital statistics are as follows:
- Length: 134cm
- Height: 46cm
- Pad width: 30cm / 12”
The stats for Kustom Kit are great – a 12” back pad is great for bench stability. I personally would spec a bench at 45cm height if I was starting with a clean sheet design, but the 46cm feels really sweet as well even for shorter users.
The length is very similar the Legend Fitness 3103 bench and this is fantastic for manoeuvrability & practicality. The Bulldog Adjustable bench by comparison is 147cm long so takes up quite a bit more space.
Pad & back rest
Pretty much every other bench uses a wooden board with padding on top, finished with a vinyl or similar hard wearing material. Kustom Kit have backed their bench pad in METAL! Talk about over-built! The pad is very sturdy as a result and has a firm padding layer. The finish is a faux leather which can have the colour and stitching customised.
The edges of the pad are chamfered which is really handy – personally I find the wider 12” pad fantastic for pressing BUT find it a little too wide for some dumbbell chest supported movements. The chamfered edges prevent any pinching which can happen on these wider square pads.
Pad gap between the seat and backrest is 6.5cm. This compares to around 5cm on a Legend 3103 and in use feels pretty similar. With he wider seat pad on the Kustom Kit bench (the Legend is tapered) it is easier to get your body in the right position to work around the gap.
The benefit to having a bench like this with a pad gap is that the time to adjust positions is extremely fast. A zero-gap bench has an extra adjustment that needs to be made every time you change position (fore and aft of the seat pad) which is usually done with a screw. With the Kustom Kit you just grab the seat and back pads and adjust them in to the new position in the ladder. No screws, no messing about.
UK made
The bench has been designed and continues to be manufactured in the South-West of the UK.
Rated to 600kg
The steel in the construction is mega – some of it >6mm thick! This contributes to a rating of 600kg. While this includes the weight of the user, I think that’s pretty much high enough any of us could bench safely within its limits!
Adjustment / FID options
The Kustom Kit bench uses a ladder adjustment mechanism. This is super-quick to change as you simply lift the bench and guide the adjuster in to the required slot on the ladder. I have tended to avoid ladder benches in the past as when I have used cheaper, lighter benches I have worries that they will ‘jump’ out of their slot. With the Kustom Kit the sheer weight of it prevents this happening as well as the really nicely designed stainless steel ladder with tight clearances contributing to a really solid feel. On top of this the ladder has the degree rating of each slot laser cut in to it to make getting the right angle even easier.
The bench can be used in flat, incline or decline positions (FID) adjusted from -10 degrees through to +80 degrees.
Wheels included
Particularly important in garage gyms, the ability wheel your bench out of the way is excellent compared to dragging it about – particularly when it’s so heavy! The Kustom Kit bench comes with small nylon wheels to make moving it around easier and, as noted above, these can be upgraded to larger stainless items.
Worst bit? Long lead time
So all of this good stuff going on – there must be some downside? And there is. The price to be paid for customisation of this level is waiting in line to get our equipment made. Of course delivery times will vary for each and every order depending on how complex it is and simply how busy the Kustom Kit Gym Equipment HQ is at the time with other orders.
If you reach out to them they can help quote exact times, but as a guideline they say 20 to 50 days. In other words we could order TODAY and then not see our bench for 4 – 10 weeks.
That is absolutely fine if you are upgrading or have access to a gym elsewhere, BUT if might be a pain for anyone looking to start a garage gym ASAP. As a comparison “off the shelf” benches can be with you within the week (depending on stock level).
Kustom Kit are not doing anything wrong here however – their shipping times are broadly comparable to other similar manufacturers such as Legend. In fact it is even WORSE for us in the UK as to ship in such equipment from America takes EVEN LONGER!
Conclusion
The Kustom Kit Deluxe Adjustable Weight Bench – to give it it’s full name – is an excellent bench. The customisation is second to none and the quality of the finish is fantastic. The downside is that there can be a lead time depending how busy they are with backorders given each one is made to spec.
Overall if you would enjoy the ability to customise your adjustable bench and live in the UK then the Kustom Kit offering is probably the best bench for you!