BallReviews
Equipment Boards => Motiv => Topic started by: milorafferty on August 24, 2017, 11:50:33 AM
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I threw my new Forza SS for the first time last night. It's a bowling ball. Not a bad bowling ball but not a "game changing" bowling ball either.
Is it a "must have" in your bag? No, not if you already have something similar to it like a Revolt Havoc or Forza GT which are pretty much the same ball motion. The SS would sit directly between these two balls with the same shot shape and strength and honestly, there isn't that much room between those two balls anyway. It would be a decent replacement for either of these two balls if you happen to need one.
If you have the Chronic Paranoia, you probably don't need the SS either.
However, if you need an even rolling solid that can handle some oil with a predictable down lane motion, the Forza SS would be a good choice and it's a good value at it's price point.
Sorry Motiv fans, I would have loved to be all geeked up over this ball as I love the Sigma Core. Perhaps I will change my mind after throwing is a few more times, but my first impression is a just "meh, it's usable."
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Milo, you are not staffer material. Shame on you for being honest.
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I currently use a Venom Shock. I imagine the SS is a strong Venom Shock.
I won't buy anything till after league starts because I just don't know what to expect. The Venom Shock can be too much ball for me and the SS would be unusable.
As for the "meh"-ness of the SS, do you think any of it is attributed to the shape? There is nothing exciting about the expected shape of the SS.
I am as big a Motiv proponent there is. As with other companies, some balls just don't work out and Motiv has had some that didn't work out for a lot of bowlers. But I will still support them since they provided my wife with a sponsorship years ago in the early days. I will say, the equipment is tons better now than it was then.
Thanks for the honesty.
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I currently use a Venom Shock. I imagine the SS is a strong Venom Shock.
I won't buy anything till after league starts because I just don't know what to expect. The Venom Shock can be too much ball for me and the SS would be unusable.
As for the "meh"-ness of the SS, do you think any of it is attributed to the shape? There is nothing exciting about the expected shape of the SS.
I am as big a Motiv proponent there is. As with other companies, some balls just don't work out and Motiv has had some that didn't work out for a lot of bowlers. But I will still support them since they provided my wife with a sponsorship years ago in the early days. I will say, the equipment is tons better now than it was then.
Thanks for the honesty.
The best way I can describe it would be the Forza SS is a stronger version of the Sigma Hybrid.
I'm a huge Motiv fan since the early days. Not a staffer, don't wear any clothing with Motiv on it, but I do like their equipment. I don't regret buying the SS and I will get good use out of it.
I can see it being a very nice option on flatter patterns, but on a THS, the late breaking, sharp hooking reactive pearls are probably going to out score this ball.
If the Venom Shock is too much ball, look at the Venom Cobra. Awesome ball(finally) in that line to follow up the Shock. The Forza SS will be more of an option when there it a bit too much oil for the Shock, but not enough for the Ghost.
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I watched a staffer throw it on a house shot Monday night. Ball motion was flat, leaving quite a few corner pins. It did not look amazing and the staffer changed to another ball and started striking at will (big ups to Motiv for recognizing local talent in my part of the world).
In the small sample size of shots that I saw thrown, it looked like a must or should have for any high rev player looking for a smoother motion on sport shots with booming back ends (like an EJ Tackett-type bowler).
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I have 3 games on mine in league play, shot 747. Another gentlemen we drill for, averages 215, has a 668-736-678 on his since last Wednesday. Game changer? No. Great solid midrange ball? You betcha. It's not as angular as the revolt havoc or ghost, but a better ball down compared to the chronic (I hate my 2 chronics). My shock is also more angular, but about 3-4 weaker overall. I'll put more action on mine tomorrow to see if I had a good nigh last week or if the ball balls me out again.
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I threw it at a test drive last weekend and I would agree with the OP assessment. It's a ball I would like a lot, but since I drilled an original Forza at the beginning of the summer (and love it), the SS is not something I will be needing to buy any time soon; too much overlap. Maybe in a year or so.
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698 tonight. Bowler missed transition game 3, 209.
Drilled up 2 before league. 2 handed lefty, 220 avg, shot 712. 210 high rev righty, 750.
Ball is racking up in my area. It's really nothing crazy motion wise, but it's just consistent and I think it's a really good benchmark type reaction. Consistent and predictable. I think when the pearl version comes out, Sigma Sting 2.0!
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698 tonight. Bowler missed transition game 3, 209.
Drilled up 2 before league. 2 handed lefty, 220 avg, shot 712. 210 high rev righty, 750.
Ball is racking up in my area. It's really nothing crazy motion wise, but it's just consistent and I think it's a really good benchmark type reaction. Consistent and predictable. I think when the pearl version comes out, Sigma Sting 2.0!
Unfortunately to many people in this post are complaining because it doesn't hook in ocean scream left on the last 15 feet of the lane and just really isn't flashy...when it was never marketed to be any of those things.
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698 tonight. Bowler missed transition game 3, 209.
Drilled up 2 before league. 2 handed lefty, 220 avg, shot 712. 210 high rev righty, 750.
Ball is racking up in my area. It's really nothing crazy motion wise, but it's just consistent and I think it's a really good benchmark type reaction. Consistent and predictable. I think when the pearl version comes out, Sigma Sting 2.0!
Unfortunately to many people in this post are complaining because it doesn't hook in ocean scream left on the last 15 feet of the lane and just really isn't flashy...when it was never marketed to be any of those things.
Too many people? Who? I don't see a single comment where someone is complaining about that.
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698 tonight. Bowler missed transition game 3, 209.
Drilled up 2 before league. 2 handed lefty, 220 avg, shot 712. 210 high rev righty, 750.
Ball is racking up in my area. It's really nothing crazy motion wise, but it's just consistent and I think it's a really good benchmark type reaction. Consistent and predictable. I think when the pearl version comes out, Sigma Sting 2.0!
Unfortunately to many people in this post are complaining because it doesn't hook in ocean scream left on the last 15 feet of the lane and just really isn't flashy...when it was never marketed to be any of those things.
Too many people? Who? I don't see a single comment where someone is complaining about that.
General statement of how the average Joe Bowler acts and reason why they won't like the ball
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698 tonight. Bowler missed transition game 3, 209.
Drilled up 2 before league. 2 handed lefty, 220 avg, shot 712. 210 high rev righty, 750.
Ball is racking up in my area. It's really nothing crazy motion wise, but it's just consistent and I think it's a really good benchmark type reaction. Consistent and predictable. I think when the pearl version comes out, Sigma Sting 2.0!
Unfortunately to many people in this post are complaining because it doesn't hook in ocean scream left on the last 15 feet of the lane and just really isn't flashy...when it was never marketed to be any of those things.
Too many people? Who? I don't see a single comment where someone is complaining about that.
General statement of how the average Joe Bowler acts and reason why they won't like the ball
General statement of the average bowler?
You made the bullsshit claim that users in THIS post was making the claim.
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Drilled mine up a little over a week ago, got around 20 games on it. Ball isn't quite as strong as I expected, but not in a bad way, very even rolling piece, will be my benchmark ball moving forward.
Comments above about this being the typical midrange rolly ball are spot on, I redid span and am moving some new equipment in to make the change and had a hole in my aresenal that this is filling nicely.
Used it in league and had a couple big games, and nice sets so far, this ball won't amaze anyone with a lot of downlane motion, but for a ball to read and smooth out an over/under THS or work for controlling the backend on flatter patterns it's going to be very valuable. I will be using mine a lot, and when it starts to flatten out I can grab my Venom Shock with the same layout and start striking again.
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Ball is just a great benchmark with nothing flashy going on? If this was any other company, I'd expect discontinued asap. But this is Motiv and they were aiming for this.
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Drilled mine up a little over a week ago, got around 20 games on it. Ball isn't quite as strong as I expected, but not in a bad way, very even rolling piece, will be my benchmark ball moving forward.
Comments above about this being the typical midrange rolly ball are spot on, I redid span and am moving some new equipment in to make the change and had a hole in my aresenal that this is filling nicely.
Used it in league and had a couple big games, and nice sets so far, this ball won't amaze anyone with a lot of downlane motion, but for a ball to read and smooth out an over/under THS or work for controlling the backend on flatter patterns it's going to be very valuable. I will be using mine a lot, and when it starts to flatten out I can grab my Venom Shock with the same layout and start striking again.
true. Ball up is Havoc if you have one. If Not, Ghost. Ball down is Shock. It is a great middle ball around. My current 5 ball is Havoc, SS, Shock, Paranoia, Tag Cannon. Covers everything I need it to on ths as I bowl in 8-10 different houses a season in the UBA.
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In one of my match play games at the recent PBA60 event in Indiana, my opponent shoot a 270+ game against me with the SS. I was impressed with the control type roll many have described here.
Naturally, in his next match, that same opponent shot a less that 200 game with the SS. Suddenly, he couldn't carry the corners. ;)
It just goes to show there is no magic ball. It's all about the right matchup at the right time. Still, I was impressed at what the SS is good at.
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Steven ^^^^
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Tried my Forza SS again last night. Still not impressed as a house shot option for me.
I gave it a few tosses in warm-up and decided quickly that it wasn't gonna happen. As last night was sweepers, I couldn't afford to not strike out of the gate, so I changed to my United Revolt. The format is four games, with a swap of opponents and pairs after the first two games.
First and second games 246, 250. Changed pairs and thought my United looked a bit sluggish(But still struck) on the first couple of frames, so I changed to the SS and went more direct to the pocket. Bad choice and finished with a small army of ten pins for a 209.
Changed to my Paranoia for the last game and had a 259 for 964 series. I was throwing the ball well and the SS just can't keep up(for me) on a house shot.
I have no doubt it will be a good ball on flatter patterns, but when you have all that free friction to the right, something about this core and cover combination doesn't match up well for me.
Notice I didn't say sh1t about "not enough hook", "big break down lane" or any of the other non-sense.
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Milo, just out of curiosity, how is yours drilled?
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Milo, just out of curiosity, how is yours drilled?
I drill everything pretty much the same. Pin over ring finger with the current directly below for symmetrical cores. My PAP is 5 over on up/down
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Milo, just out of curiosity, how is yours drilled?
I drill everything pretty much the same. Pin over ring finger with the current directly below for symmetrical cores. My PAP is 5 over on up/down
Sounds a lot like me then. Thanks. I didn't have any problems with GT on house. In the test drive I did, I just didn't feel like it finished as well as my GT did, or even OG Forza for that matter. I guess it could be related to the sigma core; I've never thrown a sigma ball. I may be one of the few that is a bit disappointed they went away from the Torx core.
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Milo, just out of curiosity, how is yours drilled?
I drill everything pretty much the same. Pin over ring finger with the current directly below for symmetrical cores. My PAP is 5 over on up/down
Sounds a lot like me then. Thanks. I didn't have any problems with GT on house. In the test drive I did, I just didn't feel like it finished as well as my GT did, or even OG Forza for that matter. I guess it could be related to the sigma core; I've never thrown a sigma ball. I may be one of the few that is a bit disappointed they went away from the Torx core.
I love the GT and killed it with the original Forward.
I haven't gave up on the SS yet. New league season at a different house starts next week and I think it might work well there.
And I haven't changed the surface either so lot of options left yet.
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I look forward to reading updates. :D
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Milo, try less surface or light polish. Ball has too strong of a cover for the layout, imo. I went with a 5.5 in pin to pap and left it at box surface. Ball still revs, but has a little left in the tank to finish.
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Milo, try less surface or light polish. Ball has too strong of a cover for the layout, imo. I went with a 5.5 in pin to pap and left it at box surface. Ball still revs, but has a little left in the tank to finish.
I think you are right, the "finish" through the pin deck is less than impressive for me.
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Ball is just a great benchmark with nothing flashy going on? If this was any other company, I'd expect discontinued asap. But this is Motiv and they were aiming for this.
Yes, a control ball pure and simple!
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Milo, any luck with surface changes?
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Milo, any luck with surface changes?
I've added a little shine with some decent results, but nothing I'm truly happy with as yet.
I think I need to completely remove the factory surface base and reapply a sanded surface of 3K or so.
I have been using my Trident a lot lately, so the SS has been left out of the bag on THS league nights.