Roto Grip Dark Star Review

[precisionrotoguy]

Layout- 4 3/4” from pin to PAP, pin under ring, no hole.

I was surprised by the length that was there in this ball, even with a pin down drilling. What I was even more surprised by was the level of continuation I got. At Seattle city, scores were relatively low this year, but I averaged around 230 once I had the Dark Star in hand, even having to loft gutter caps by the end. This thing not only cornered enough to carry (again, even with a quicker rolling, lower flare layout), it did it better than most anything else being thrown in the tournament. I’ve been able to use this ball on a large variety of conditions, on basically anything but the heaviest of conditions, and been very impressed. This ball has a tremendous amount of value overall and offers tremendous bang for your buck. It is visually stunning and has great shelf appeal. Great work again from Roto Grip!

[cmsubowler]

Hello everyone and thanks for reading. First off I would like to thank Rotogrip for coming out with this ball. Great addition to the arsenal and I will certainly be drilling up at least one more. Now to the meat and potatoes so to speak. First I would like to refer you to the video here-- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLAwweAYAkw . Now you can get the visual and I will tell you what I have found throughout the past couple of weeks. The ball is drilled with the dual angle layout technique with a drilling pattern of 55 x 4 7/8 x 65. I drilled it up the same as one of my Nomad Pearls for comparison. I also filmed the video and settled on a 4000 abralon surface as the best one for me although all surfaces I tried seemed to be excellent. Very versatile with surface changes. This ball is very clean through the front part of the lane but does not pick up roll too early as soon as the ball touches friction. Towards the back part of the lane is where this ball really does well. It not only makes a strong move on the backend but very continuous as well. If you come up the back a little more and slow the speed down you can get it to stop at the pocket a little bit but it still maintains excellent hitting power and clears the front very well. Compared to the Nomad Pearl is tough to tell in the video but with the same drilling pattern after the front starts to break down, I can switch to the Dark Star and keep feet and target the same. Great hitting power no matter what part of the lane I have been playing. Overall this is a great ball to go to during lane transition and also will make an excellent start ball for those individuals just starting out with a slightly lower ball speed.

[kblackmer]

Riot-This ball is almost a mirror image of it's fellow brother dark star. Having the same weight block and ball dynamics in it's characteristics, there are still some differences. While keeping close to the same layout as the dark star the riot for me rolls smooth through the front part of the lanes and still stays on course to the break point. How ever the entire roll of the ball from start to finish creates more over all friction then the dark star. So while the riot rolls through the oil, it still moves towards the pocket with a smooth heavier roll due to it's solid reactive cover stock. These two balls are really ahead of there competition for there performance level. Layout for dark star- pin above bridge, cg 2” right from center of grip. Balance hole on val in pap. Riot layout pin below bridge cg 2” from center of grip. Balance hole on val in pap.

Once again great job Roto Grip. heres the link to the youtube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACiITjCplJo

[kblackmer]

The Dark star- is very smooth and strong in a number of ways that no other entry to medium level ball brings to the lanes. It's Photon™ Core enables me to just roll the ball and let nature take it's course. The higher R.G. helps me get the ball down the lane even in the drier areas, while the pearl cover stock helps me maintain my skid through the heads while the ball makes it's transition from oil to dry with out a lot of over under reaction. The hitting power I get from this ball comes with great ease and not having to over power the ball just to make the coner and still carry.

heres the youtube link to the video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhSEp5bvdYg

thanks
Kblackmer
roto grip staff