York Vintage Bumper Plates

These York bumper plates are a great way to carry the vintage vibe into deadlifts and RDLs. Mine include repainted 25kg plates along with original 15kg and 20kg plates. The rubber is starting to show its age, but they are still solid after all these years. I do not use them for heavy drops because I want to preserve them, but for deadlift work they are a great fit in my gym.

I love these bumpers. They're beautiful (mine have been repainted) and I have 20kg sets from the 70s and 80s. I like to use them for overhead pressing when I drop on pads and I have not had any issues with this, though I would be more careful with them than I would with modern bumpers.

Beautifully crafted vintage plates with milled backs, so the weights are very accurate. Those with the black bumpers come from the 1970s and those with colorized rubber to match the plate color come from the 80s. These were featured prominently in the 1984 Olympics. The red (25kg) and blue (20kg) plates are not common but they can be found with a little effort. The yellow (15kg) are getting increasingly difficult to find, as they were prone to cracking around the hubs after repeated drops, thus fewer have survived to the present. Overall, fantastic and accurate plates... but I wouldn't recommend use for Olympic lifting or if you're someone who drops their deadlifts after lockout; stick to modern bumpers for that.

Wouldn’t necessarily want to use them as true bumpers, but I do love these plates. I use them on my 25lb axles most often so that my bar weight comes out to “normal.” A good piece of history to have.