Considering a Urethane ball

[Botwin]

Sometimes I bowl at an older house with wood lanes. They are usually on the dry side.

My reactive ball (Cyborg) is a bit too aggressive. Once in a while my plastic spare ball works OK, but usually its just a bit less than what is needed.

I was considering the Storm Pitch Blue to fill a void between the Cyborg and plastic ball, and to have something urethane for the wood lanes.

Thoughts?

[ALazySavage]

Without watching you bowl or knowing anything about your game I have one question, when you say the lanes are typically on the dry side when are you experiencing the dry? Is it that the heads are blown up and the ball rolls far too early or is it that you have a lot of "free" hook on the outsides so that the back-ends are flying? If the heads are torched I would recommend the Pitch Blue, if the back-ends are far too active I would recommend the Pitch Black.

[Amyers]

Depends on your style you have to be able to keep the ball in front of you (straighter angles) or the carry is awful. Urethane is over used at the moment because people see some of the tour guys using it that have much higher ball speed and rev rates than your typical bowler. I would definitely consider trying something polished with a higher Rg before jumping on urethane.

[chip82901]

I love my pitch blue, but there is a time and a place for it. Honestly, when it comes to burnt up lanes, I usually will make the move to something with surface, like a Phaze II. If that starts hooking too early, then I will make the switch to either Pearl or my Pitch Blue. I actually have a fairly weak drill on my phaze II and my pitch blue. But, as has been stated, you have to keep the angles tight or you'll leave stuff you've never left before. My advice, before making the jump to urethane, consider either a High RG Pearl as stated below, or even a hybrid to help blend everything out a bit.

[RobLV1]

Depends on your style you have to be able to keep the ball in front of you (straighter angles) or the carry is awful. Urethane is over used at the moment because people see some of the tour guys using it that have much higher ball speed and rev rates than your typical bowler. I would definitely consider trying something polished with a higher Rg before jumping on urethane.

I agree. Too many bowlers are going with urethane in order to be able to stay in the track. Generally, it doesn't work!

[fokai73]

Today's urethane balls are over priced IMO.

[foreverincamo]

Today's urethane balls are over priced IMO.
Yes they are. I have no idea how these companies charge what they do for urethane.

[RobLV1]

Yes they are. I have no idea how these companies charge what they do for urethane.

Because they have CORES, just like reactive resin. You can't compare today's resin balls with resin balls from the '80's.

[Amyers]

Yes they are. I have no idea how these companies charge what they do for urethane.

As rob stated the addition of the core. Also pouring urethane requires cleaning all the resin out of the system which is a hard task. In the mid to late 80's the top of the line balls were 150 to 175 dollars in my area anyway. If you figure in inflation the question should really be how do they make these balls so cheap now.

[Bowl300AJ]

Gave away my Pitch Black (bought a used 15lb) to my son. New arsenal 14lbs. I miss it!

Using my Radical Rack Attack in its place.

[ep1977]

I have a Lord Field "Old School" urethane and it has a definite spot in my league bag. My summer sport shot league just started and I swapped out the urethane for pin up ball with surface but may need to rethink that in coming weeks.

[foreverincamo]

Because they have CORES, just like reactive resin. You can't compare today's resin balls with resin balls from the '80's.
Yes, they have cores. But they aren't especially designed cores. They use tried and true cores that they have plenty of.

[RobLV1]

Yes, they have cores. But they aren't especially designed cores. They use tried and true cores that they have plenty of.

And they cost money to manufacture, hence the higher price of urethane balls with cores.

[bowl1820]

The main reason Urethane costs more today is because they don't sell as many as they did back in the Urethane days.

When Urethane was king, they were makng bunches and everybody had one of them, so the cost was down.

Then resin balls appeared, they were higher priced at first. But as popularity increased and sales rose, the price came down some and Urethane production faded from the market.

Today while Urethane (which many Urethane balls are not true Urethane) is making small come back,The demand is still low so their still not producing them in the numbers they use too.

Add to that todays increased costs for materials, overhead etc. and the price for Urethane is naturally higher.

The use of moderned designed "cores" is just one minor factor in overall cost of the modern Urethane ball.