Hi Colin,

At this point the only way to remove items from admin bar is by removing the capability from the role. If that item points to an admin menu, you can remove the access to that page using menu editor. That item will still appear within the admin bar, but the user won’t have access to the page.

I have an item within my to do list which allows you to customize admin bar against role, which will address this issue.

Thanks

Syam