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Estimating Coverstocks

Posted: July 7th, 2018, 10:35 pm
by TexasThunder
TL;DR I need your help estimating some covers. :D See bolded question.

I have been familiarizing myself with what is available on the ball market these days. Realizing that cover stock is most important, I set out to determine a relative system for rating whats on market atm. My reason for this is to get a handle on what a "medium" cover stock is. Most comapny's info seems more like proganda, or what is medium in there line, not what the true market medium cover is. The best way to determine this would be to roll them all myself , 8-) , but since the closest I came to something like that was 1 mega demo in the 7 years I bowled in Dallas, this really isn't possible. To compensate for my lack of Millionaire Status, I have been using multiple Youtube videos to get an estimate.

Now since this is a relative system it requires a high and low bound by which to measure. For my system I used the Storm Sure Lock and Brunswick Kingpin Max as the strong bound (5/5) and I used the Storm Pitch Black and Brunswick True Motion use the weak bound (1/5). I AM IN NO WAY SAYING these are the strongest or weakest covers or balls, just that I used them as measuring sticks. I am not going to list any other of my own estimates till much later, because I don't want to bias anyone's estimates.

Would you mind trying to estimate a few the folowing balls?
Please give it a score in this range: 5(strong), 4 (Med-Strong), 3 (Medium), 2 (Med-Weak), 1 (Weak). If you feel you must give a ball a .5 score (1.5, 2.5, etc) please only do so if you feel it truly is between two strengths. I have compiled a list of as few balls per manufacturer as felt was an accurate sample. Pick those you have personal experience with. If you only do one ball that will help me greatly.

900 Global honey badger
900 Global Dream On
900 Global Boost (Pearl)
900 Global truth tour
900 Global Shadow Ops
900 Global Black Ops

Brunswick Kingpin
Brunswick Magnitude 035 Pearl
Brunswick Quantum Classic Black
Brunswick Rhino
Brunswick Tenacity

Colombia 300 Nitrous
Colombia 300 Lit
Colombia 300 Spoiler
Colombia 300 Saber

Dv8 Pitbull Bite
Dv8 Turmoil Solid
Dv8 Hitman
Dv8 Nasty Rumor
Dv8 Alley Cat

Ebonite Matrix
Ebonite Affinity
Ebonite Verdict
Ebonite Verdict Pearl
Ebonite Destiny Solid
Ebonite Game Breaker 3

Hammer Black Widow Gold
Hammer Vibe
Hammer Gauntlet Fury
Hammer Black Widow Urethane
Hammer Fierce Phobia
Hammer Purple Pearl Urethane
Hammer RIP’D Solid

Motiv Tank Rampage
Motiv Free Style Rush
Motiv Trident
Motiv Jackal Ghost
Motiv Venom Shock Pearl
Motiv Trident Quest
Motiv Villain
Motiv Lethal Paranoia

Radical Katana Dragon
Radical Beyond Ridiculous
Radical Tremendous Pearl
Radical Intel
Radical Katana Slash

Roto Grip Hyper Cell Fused
Roto Grip Dare Devil Danger
Roto Grip Hustle HYB
Roto Grip Idol
Roto Grip No Rules Pearl
Roto Grip Show Off

Storm Phaze II
Storm Match Up Hybrid
Storm Drive
Storm Hy-Road
Storm Hy-Road Nano
Storm SON!Q
Storm Code X
Storm Intense

Track Paradox Black
Track Logix
Track Kinetic Ruby
Tack Ultra Heat

Re: Estimating Coverstocks

Posted: July 7th, 2018, 11:10 pm
by 44boyd
For coverstock strength I don’t think you need to reinvent the wheel. Most manufacturers list what type of oil the ball should be used for.

Heavy oil-5
Medium to Heavy-5
Medium-3
Dry to medium-2
Dry-1.

Re: Estimating Coverstocks

Posted: July 8th, 2018, 1:29 am
by TexasThunder
44boyd wrote:For coverstock strength I don’t think you need to reinvent the wheel. Most manufacturers list what type of oil the ball should be used for.

Heavy oil-5
Medium to Heavy-5
Medium-3
Dry to medium-2
Dry-1.
You must not have read the whole post. I clarify this. "Most comapny's info seems more like proganda, or what is medium in their line, not what the true market medium cover is."

I have run into issues taking what a company says as truth. Companies are not consistent across the board. What might be a 5 for one company, is a 3 at another. What I'm trying to do is compare across companies.

Re: Estimating Coverstocks

Posted: July 8th, 2018, 3:34 am
by 44boyd
I read it, are you wanting OOB comparison or when you change surface?

Re: Estimating Coverstocks

Posted: July 8th, 2018, 3:56 am
by MegaMav
Subscribe to Bowlers Journal International if you want a 3rd party opinion and hook rating across brands.
There is no publicly disclosed measurement for coverstock strength.

Re: Estimating Coverstocks

Posted: July 12th, 2018, 3:52 pm
by rrb6699
what you get out of the box and what you end up with after a week of bowling are two different things. most balls end up medium no matter how "strong" they are made. weaker or medium balls are pretty close to what they say, because you can't really overgrow a medium or weak cover ball. err... "We got the WEAKEST or M9ST MEDIUM ball on the market " doesn't really sell right?

i've said this before. coverstock should be measured by a scale called "traction factor". the only way I could describe it would be to standardize the amount of oil on a hard lane surface, spin the ball at a TBD rate and lightly drop it on the surface. the quicker the ball rolls the higher the traction factor. at the other end of the spectrum, you could do the same thing only reverse the spin and deliver the ball at a low speed (TBD - 5 mph?) and measure how far the ball goes before its traction stop it and reverses it's direction.

I'm proposing a test standard for ball grabbing power. the marketing hype pushes hooking but you can hook any ball from 1 board to the opposite gutter if you throw it slow enough.

seems like the throwbot could be setup to do these tests.

Re: Estimating Coverstocks

Posted: July 13th, 2018, 7:51 pm
by snick
Your driller will no doubt have an opinion on this, especially since he should be familiar with your game.