The Big Time Motion…

First Impressions
The Pro-Motion hooks and hooks a lot. It hooks in the mids and makes a huge turn down lane.

Our Testers:
Tamer Elbaga (Lefty)
Style: Tweener
RPM: 375 rpm
PAP: 5 & 3/8 up
Average Speed: 18.5 mph (at release)
Axis tilt: low
Axis rotation: medium/high
Test Equipment: 14 Pounds
Layout: 65 x 5 x 40
Intent: Medium/long roll with a medium transition at the breakpoint

Jeremy Hilbert (Righty)
Style: cranker
RPM: 440 rpm
PAP: 4 & 3/4 up
Average Speed: 19.5 mph (at release)
Axis tilt: high
Axis rotation: medium
Test Equipment: 14 Pounds
Layout: 50 x 4 x 40
Intent: Medium/long roll with a medium transition at the breakpoint

Bryan Hoffman (Righty)
Style: Higher Tilt Stroker
RPM: 280 rpm
PAP: 4 1/4 & 1/8 down
Average Speed: 17.5 mph (at release)
Axis tilt: high
Axis rotation: medium
Test Equipment: 14 Pounds
Layout: 65 x 4.5 x 35
Intent: Medium roll with a slow transition at the breakpoint

Thanks to Jeff Smith and Pure It Bowling for drilling our equipment.
Buy the Storm Pro-Motion at PureItBowling.com.
Thanks to Limerick Bowl in Limerick, PA.

“Keep in mind that coverstock accounts for 70% of ball reaction, but the core creates the dynamic shape of the reaction. Your driller will alter the shape to suit your game.”

Test Pattern:
THS: 40ft, 23ml
Sport: KEGEL Abbey Road: 40ft, 24.2 ml, 3.7:1 ratio

Value
B-
The Pro-Motion is on the stronger side so will be a go for some and no for others depending on the conditions you face.

Specs
The Storm Pro-Motion uses the new Piston Core (symmetrical) core inside the SPEC solid coverstock.
15 pound = RG of 2.52, diff of .049
14 pound = RG of 2.53, diff of .051
Coverstock finish: 1500 grit polished

Overall
THS: B-
Sport: B+
If you are here, you may be intrigued by another “Belmo” ball. You’ll be happy to know that whether or not you are a fan of Belmo or the previous balls in the Signature line, the Pro-Motion is different and better in most ways. But I have to come back to my first impression, holy cow is this strong. The ball definitely reads the mids strongly and the core definitely pops downlane. So the first element I see is what I call trust. Throw it and you know it will not skid through and miss the breakpoint and you know it will make the turn. The tough part for me was it forced me way deeper than I would ever bother playing on house. It forced me deeper then the other balls we tested, the Halo Vision and the Idol Pro. However, those are also not 2000 grit. Nevertheless I usually get easy projection and I felt like I couldn’t push this through. It just read and went. I remember when I first tested the Phaze II and it forced me pretty deep as well to start. However that was was still easier to get to the spot and had almost an asymmetric shape when fresh. This ball isn’t too far off if I’m honest but it has more of the booming traditional symmetric downlane look.
I’ll also say I’m warming up to the SPEC cover. It is clearly a very strong cover and more importantly, let’s the core very clearly display it’s own characteristics. So you got strong mids and strong backends.

Jeremy is our next tester and with the higher speed and more tilt, he can stay a touch more direct than I as his style can force the ball through. He still sees a strong midlane read with that strong backend. He can’t really miss in at all as it will not hold. This is one of the downfalls of really continuous strong symmetrics on house shots. You want a little forgiveness there. There were also opportunities to get outside and not recover due to just too much loss of energy. Like many strong balls, they just kind of lose energy if you push them too far out into the friction. I think a bit more volume would make it easier to use this piece or perhaps less surface. I’m kind of curious about the surface adjustments on this ball as when we did it with the Crux Prime, there was a clear window that the cover seemed to like. It didn’t feel as usably tweakable but maybe a topic for future video.

Bryan was next and he saw the typical too much surface not enough ball reaction. This was a little surprising given how much backend others were seeing. However, with his game, it didn’t seem to match up very well. The early read forced him in but as he got in, he lost hit. He had to thread the needle to carry. He was left feeling a bit of that, this ball is for high rev guys. I wouldn’t say that’s completely accurate for the Pro-Motion but certainly with his rev rate and tilt, the ball felt like it needed a hill it couldn’t climb.

Sport Shot
We tested on the 40ft Kegel Abbey Road pattern. With the amount of friction there was, the best look was 11 to 4. With other balls that line wouldn’t make sense but because the ball controls the mids and pops downlane, it was the best look. As I start to navigate in, I found it near impossible. The ball wouldn’t push to the breakpoint and kept reading early. Nothing was remotely close until I got to 20-8 and that’s just too much angle for me.
For Jeremy, 18 to 7 looked really good. More speed and the ball also seemed to be a bit smoother downlane. The balls does go through the pins very nicely.
For Bryan his look wasn’t very different from what he saw on house. He had good pocket control but the ball just doesn’t have enough strength to drive out the corners consistently when he opened up the angles through the fronts.

Final Thoughts
At the end of the day, the Storm Pro-Motion has the makings of a good ball. The elements I mentioned early on lead to trust. Those same elements mean if you don’t have enough volume, the ball seems almost unusable. However, I can see this ball coming into play when you are playing on heavier house shots and longer sport shots when you have fewer boards at the end of the pattern but you need a ball to turn that corner.
The other thing I will note which is somewhat rare for Storm. Since I personally use 14lb, I love the fact that the 14 specs are close to the 15lb balls. If you’re looking for a strong symmetric piece, the Pro-Motion is definitely worth a look.