BallReviews
Equipment Boards => 900 Global => Topic started by: Average Joe Reviews on March 15, 2018, 11:56:20 AM
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The 900 Global Badger is the latest addition to the Tour Preferred 700 Series. This ball features the new Lacerate symmetric core and the S71 hybrid coverstock. The Badger is designed to create the similar angular motion the Honey Badger has, but on heavier oil conditions.
When I first found out about the Badger I was really excited since I am a fan of the Honey Badger. When I read all the specs and I found out that the Badger was going to use a different core than the Grapnel Asymmetric I was a little skeptical about how the Badger was going to perform and I wondered if the Badger was going to be able to live up to its name. It took me 5 minutes to forget every doubt I had in my mind. The Badger is definitely a Honey Badger on steroids.
I tried this ball on our typical house shot pattern (Kegel, Main Street 41’) and the Badger allowed me to swing the ball just to watch it make a strong move when it hits the friction downlane. The Badger is clean trough the front part of the lane and once it exits the pattern it provides a strong and angular downlane motion.
I had a great margin of error with the Badger. Misses outside and the ball had enough recovery to hit the pocket with great carry. Misses inside and the Badger pushed further down the lane without going sideways.
I compared the Badger to the Honey Badger. The Honey Badger is a tad cleaner and it is more angular than the Badger. Overall, it has less hook potential than the Badger.
For me the Honey Badger has been a great ball, but sometimes I struggle to have a consistent motion on fresh. The ball really shines when there is enough friction and later in the set. With the Badger I don’t have that problem anymore. The Badger allows me to have a similar motion than the Honey Badger on fresh. I feel that the Badger and the Honey Badger are a great 1-2 combo.
The Badger is what I would call a “house shot killerâ€. The ball provides easy length and a strong and controllable backend motion. The Badger never wanted to hook too early and is not overly clean that would go past the breakpoint. It is a versatile piece that can be used from different part of the lane. I feel that the Badger can be used on almost anything but the extremes.
If you liked the Honey Badger or if you want a ball with a strong and angular backend motion that can be used on most medium and heavy oil patterns, then the Badger is the ball for you. The Badger is a great addition to the 900 Global lineup.
Thank you for watching!
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Good review and nice looking ball at a good price overall (would buy for sure if Hy-Road didn't have that spot in my arsenal locked down). Nothing beats that 2 piece hit.
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I love the HB, what is the main difference in the 2 pieces? Your opinion?
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I love the HB, what is the main difference in the 2 pieces? Your opinion?
2 piece are always fairly high RG (no filler material to lower) which on paper with my speed dominant high tilt shouldn't match up but they do. They also tend to hit different. The ball does deflect a bit more but also causes more pin action (more energy goes into pins) so get more messengers. Main difference I notice is less big splits when go high (rarely get pocket splits even with more deflection since I don't tend to have a lot of entry angle anyway) which with my more spare centric game is a big plus. Since with my style I don't get to take advantage of the adult bumper that much anyway which can be a disadvantage of a high RG ball that reads the pattern late it gives me more advantages than say some of my lower RG stuff. That said for whatever reason my Hy-Road reads THS patterns better than any other ball I have thrown and is high RG but that is kind of what that ball is famous for. The one other advantage of 2 piece balls is they tend to be more durable and less likely to crack. Still for people with more revs whose ball naturally reads the pattern well 2 piece balls are probably a bit more situational.
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^^^^
Hack's first sentence nails it. By the numbers, the HB shouldn't have matched-up to my style. Boy, do the numbers lie sometime!
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Thanks!
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Ok, I've never thrown a HyRoad. #900Gforlife But I AM happy to say this looks like a slightly stronger Night Hawk SE. Speaking to several staffers, Badger is less on the backend than the HB, but more control over all. So when you can't keep the HB from going left turn Clyde, the Badger will smooth it out. Will it be a great 1-2 punch? I guess I'll find out.
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Ok, I've never thrown a HyRoad. #900Gforlife But I AM happy to say this looks like a slightly stronger Night Hawk SE. Speaking to several staffers, Badger is less on the backend than the HB, but more control over all. So when you can't keep the HB from going left turn Clyde, the Badger will smooth it out. Will it be a great 1-2 punch? I guess I'll find out.
When looking at this ball the one comparison that keeps coming to my mind is the HyRoad. I feel like the Badger would work a lot better for me though than my experience with the HyRoad because of my success with taller core shapes
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The Jewel was deceptively strong for the price. The death of it was the marketing of it. The ball is going to roll like a HyRoad. Solid release from 900 Global IMO.
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It looks like a Hy-Road, the specs are like a Hy-Road, it rolls like a Hy-Road; hence, it must be a Hy-Road (minus the scent).
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It looks like a Hy-Road, the specs are like a Hy-Road, it rolls like a Hy-Road; hence, it must be a Hy-Road (minus the scent).
Well lot worse balls to ape I guess. If it is like the Hy-Road, 900 fans are going to love this ball on THS. Still will wait and see as I am one who believes cores can't be totally described by their numbers.
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It looks like a Hy-Road, the specs are like a Hy-Road, it rolls like a Hy-Road; hence, it must be a Hy-Road (minus the scent).
Well lot worse balls to ape I guess. If it is like the Hy-Road, 900 fans are going to love this ball on THS. Still will wait and see as I am one who believes cores can't be totally described by their numbers.
From my personal observations watching a staffer friend throwing it, I think it's slightly longer and slightly sharper off the spot than a Hy-Road, but it's always a little tough to say given the bowler in question, lane condition, etc.
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It looks like a Hy-Road, the specs are like a Hy-Road, it rolls like a Hy-Road; hence, it must be a Hy-Road (minus the scent).
Well lot worse balls to ape I guess. If it is like the Hy-Road, 900 fans are going to love this ball on THS. Still will wait and see as I am one who believes cores can't be totally described by their numbers.
If any ball showed this, it's the Honey Badger.
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After finally having a chance to throw mine Badger in league on a THS I can confirm this ball rolls a lot like a Hy-road. I have mine drilled 65 x 4 /14 x 35 (pin up) and it rolls very similar to my pin down hy-road from a few years back. I was surprised that it has control but it also can generate enough angle to carry well. (shot 266, 276 first 2 games) I also noticed it is a good compliment to the Honey Badger, as my Badger started to pick up a little to early in game 3 (3 flatish 10 pins) out came my Honey from the bag and I was able to stay in the same area of the lane get a bit more length (about 1 foot or so more). The back end from the honey badger easily snapped out the remaining 10 pins. Overall nice first set shooting 750ish
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After finally having a chance to throw mine Badger in league on a THS I can confirm this ball rolls a lot like a Hy-road. I have mine drilled 65 x 4 /14 x 35 (pin up) and it rolls very similar to my pin down hy-road from a few years back. I was surprised that it has control but it also can generate enough angle to carry well. (shot 266, 276 first 2 games) I also noticed it is a good compliment to the Honey Badger, as my Badger started to pick up a little to early in game 3 (3 flatish 10 pins) out came my Honey from the bag and I was able to stay in the same area of the lane get a bit more length (about 1 foot or so more). The back end from the honey badger easily snapped out the remaining 10 pins. Overall nice first set shooting 750ish
Gratz. Yep 900 fans in for a treat then but have NIB Hy-Road already to go so might be awhile before I own this one. Think I will bust out my HB this week though.
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While I agree that the Badger has some similarities with the Hy-Road, for me it is a bigger ball overall.
I am able to start on fresh with the Badger and have a consistent reaction without any over/under while when I had a Hy-Road, I had to really play into the friction to get some shape down the lane and it was less forgiving than the Badger.
They have similar length and a similar shape downlane, but I feel like the Badger handles more oil than the Hy-Road.
Just my two cents.
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While I agree that the Badger has some similarities with the Hy-Road, for me it is a bigger ball overall.
I am able to start on fresh with the Badger and have a consistent reaction without any over/under while when I had a Hy-Road, I had to really play into the friction to get some shape down the lane and it was less forgiving than the Badger.
They have similar length and a similar shape downlane, but I feel like the Badger handles more oil than the Hy-Road.
Just my two cents.
Just what I was expecting. Once again thanks for the information. Sounds like this ball is going to make a lot of 900 heads happy.
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While I agree that the Badger has some similarities with the Hy-Road, for me it is a bigger ball overall.
I am able to start on fresh with the Badger and have a consistent reaction without any over/under while when I had a Hy-Road, I had to really play into the friction to get some shape down the lane and it was less forgiving than the Badger.
They have similar length and a similar shape downlane, but I feel like the Badger handles more oil than the Hy-Road.
Just my two cents.
Just what I was expecting. Once again thanks for the information. Sounds like this ball is going to make a lot of 900 heads happy.
I did not expect this one to make it in the bag. I guess I'm wrong!
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I just want to say thanks for doing reviews that I can understand and get something out of.
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I just want to say thanks for doing reviews that I can understand and get something out of.
Thank you, I appreciate the kind words! This is why I came up with the idea of this YouTube channel, to make reviews for the average bowler, made by average bowlers.
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While I agree that the Badger has some similarities with the Hy-Road, for me it is a bigger ball overall.
I am able to start on fresh with the Badger and have a consistent reaction without any over/under while when I had a Hy-Road, I had to really play into the friction to get some shape down the lane and it was less forgiving than the Badger.
They have similar length and a similar shape downlane, but I feel like the Badger handles more oil than the Hy-Road.
Just my two cents.
So if this is a bigger version of the Hy-road to you, how would it stack up to a Code Red? The Code Red has a one foot in the door as my next ball but this Badger sure sounds like it’s a lot of ball for the price. Making me 2nd guess myself >.<
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I just want to say thanks for doing reviews that I can understand and get something out of.
Thank you, I appreciate the kind words! This is why I came up with the idea of this YouTube channel, to make reviews for the average bowler, made by average bowlers.
And you do just that.... kudo’s to you.
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While I agree that the Badger has some similarities with the Hy-Road, for me it is a bigger ball overall.
I am able to start on fresh with the Badger and have a consistent reaction without any over/under while when I had a Hy-Road, I had to really play into the friction to get some shape down the lane and it was less forgiving than the Badger.
They have similar length and a similar shape downlane, but I feel like the Badger handles more oil than the Hy-Road.
Just my two cents.
So if this is a bigger version of the Hy-road to you, how would it stack up to a Code Red? The Code Red has a one foot in the door as my next ball but this Badger sure sounds like it’s a lot of ball for the price. Making me 2nd guess myself >.<
Unfortunately I haven’t tried the Storm Code Red since Storm doesn’t send us any products for review. From what I’ve seen, the Code Red might be a tad stronger and earlier than the Badger, with a slower response to friction downlane.
I’ve been using the Badger on every league I bowl and my lowest game has been a 220 with 2 opens. The ball is definitely a great ball for most house shot patterns. I feel like I have a lot of room for error with this ball. For the price, it is definitely tough to beat.
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I just want to say thanks for doing reviews that I can understand and get something out of.
Thank you, I appreciate the kind words! This is why I came up with the idea of this YouTube channel, to make reviews for the average bowler, made by average bowlers.
And you do just that.... kudo’s to you.
Thank you sir! Right now is kind of slow since most leagues are about to end and companies don’t release any big balls, but stay tuned because Bowl expo is coming! ;D