Hi everyone of Motivnation,

I'm a new bowler - sort of. I bowled right handed for 20 years until a torn a2 pulley took the use of my hand for much more than feeding and cleaning myself. Determined not to leave the game I loved since I could walk, I drilled a ball and started bowling. That was a QZ2 Backdraft. I've never had a Motiv ball before, and wow was I impressed. I liked it so much I ordered a Primal Tv4 and a Sigma Tour.

Backdraft is drilled over the label -

Speed - 13 - 14 mph
RevRate - ~200

As I'm just learning I have pretty inconsistent rotation and axis tilt - so please excuse the lack of information.

I'm generally not a fan of skid/flip equipment at all because visually I don't read the reaction well. In a perfect world I'd like my Primal to be the strong ball of the two and to keep that characteristic Motiv clean roll through the fronts on both.

Thanks

Well- congrats on keeping in the game. God bless you for your stick-to-it-ness; I sign my emails with "winning is just the stubborn refusal to lose."

For your new balls, make sure you have someone measure your PAP coordinates. If you have a competent ball driller around you, that should be cake.

A good 'benchmark' arc-ing type reaction for the Primal TV4 I have found to be 45 by 4" by 45 in dual angle speak.

I also like a stronger backend reaction from the Sigma, and without being 'skid-snap', you could look at a 35 by 4.5" by 50 layout

I had them drilled tonight. It's almost scary with your advice being so close to the drill I have on them. The tv4 is 50 x 5 x 55 and the sigma tour is 35 x 4 1/2 x 65 with a p2 hole. It turns out my left handed pap is very similar to my right handed one. 5 3/8 and 1/2 up. My right handed one was 5 1/4 and 1/4 up.

I will start by giving my utmost respect to these two amazing pieces of equipment. The sigma tour might be the cleanest ball through the fronts I have ever owned. The primal is scary strong but doesn't force me into a part of the lane I'm uncomfortable playing. The 41 foot house pattern was cake tonight.

I know talking about scores on house patterns is nothing impressive around great bowlers and they didn't used to matter to me either. But starting over and shooting 600 (for 3 this time) is a small but powerful accomplishment for me.

Just as a thought being new to motiv equipment, do people ever drill motiv balls Rico? I've had a Rico ball in my right handed bag for the last 5 years and really finds that it fills the gap between medium and toast for me.

Neat. It's nice to get verification now and then!

Nice bowling, too!

As far as 'rico' goes, if you had one before and liked it, there is no reason to not use one if you find need now. I won't get into why I don't like that name/drilling/etc, but if it works for you, it works. It seems to be a personal preference.

The QZ series and the Recon have been balls I've heard people apply that drilling to with some success. The MotivatorZ and MotivatorX covers would give you a clean, even look. You might even consider the Ascent pearl, because it gives you the low-flare control core of the Recon with the MotivatorZ pearl cover.

Have fun and don't be afraid to experiment.

Please elaborate - I have never known much at all about the layout. I bought a used ball many years ago with that layout and left it alone and really liked it. Since then I've drilled a lot with that layout (ultimate inferno, absolute inferno, jacked, acid, and most recently a frantic).

From what I've gathered, some people find the layout does absolutely nothing - others it's a very blended reaction - and still others the ball will go sideways at the end. In some ways I can understand why it wouldn't be a recommended layout just based on that thought alone, whereas we can finer-tune a reaction with a dual angle layout. And out of sheer curiosity alone I'd like to find out what others think about it.

As far as the ascent line - I've heard they are quite strong - would you be kind enough to give them a comparison to another ball with which I may be more familiar?

Many Thanks again,
Travis

There is a very interesting thread over at BowlerChat.net you can peruse at your leisure regarding the Rico layout. I simply don't like it because of the 'fixed' layout parameters that really don't take an individual's characteristics into account. Well, i'll let you read about it...

http://forum.bowlingchat.net/viewtopic. ... hilit=Rico

As far as giving you a comparison, I haven't drilled an Ascent; I have an original orange Recon, and it is my go-to ball for scorched earth conditions. I never matched up well with the Quadfire core, but that is nothing but my preference. I have many of the Q balls here in center that have plenty of success, just none in my bag.

Be careful on the "rico" drill. I'm with Mick as well as the bowler's track/game/individual specifications seems to have been forgotten whoever originally came up with the idea. If you track low to medium range - 3 1/2 - 5 1/4 or so - the idea of the layout essentially works. 5 3/8+, going so far down pin wise(in the middle of your grip), it can become pretty dangerous depending on your coordinates that it may raise the bowtie high enough to clip the edge of middle finger/thumb hole. Creates some issues for sure. If it were me, I would just test out different angles and lengths to pinpoint a general "shape" of reaction like rico and being able to obtain it with your individual specifications included into the equation. All rico is honestly doing(in my opinion) is putting "MB" outside of VAL creating that overall smoothness and good for wet/dry conditions.