First Impressions
The Storm Night Road was surprisingly stunning and I’ll explain why.
Check out our friends Jeff Miller and Ron Hoppe at Haley’s Pro Shop for world class drilling and coaching!
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: 50 x 5 x 45
Bryan Hoffman (Righty)
Style: Stroker
RPM: 280 rpm
PAP: 4 1/2 & 1 1/2 up
Average Speed: 18.5 mph (at release)
Axis tilt: high
Axis rotation: medium
Test Equipment: 14 Pounds
Layout: 50 x 5 x 45
Tyler Church (Righty)
Style: Power Player
RPM: 450 rpm
PAP: 5 1/2 & 1/2 up
Average Speed: 19 mph (at release)
Axis tilt: med
Axis rotation: medium
Test Equipment: 14 Pounds
Layout: 50 x 5 x 45
“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.”
Pattern
THS: 40ft, 23ml
Sport: Dead Man’s Curve 43ft 3:1
Specs
The Storm Night Road uses the Inverted Fe2 symmetric core inside the ReX Pearl coverstock.
15 pound = RG of 2.57, diff of .046
14 pound = RG of 2.58, diff of .037
Coverstock finish: 4K FAST
Overall
Well I spilled the subjective beans at the start but let’s talk a little deeper about the Storm Night Road. Honestly this review is not very difficult. We are on a medium-light volume house pattern so it’s theoretically ideal for this ball. I had 2 thoughts initially. 1. Will we simply have another HyRoad X? 2. I didn’t really expect it to roll like a HyRoad Pearl even though the Night Road is also a pearl, given the ReX characteristics. The Night Road uses the same core and a pearl coverstock. However, the ReX cover being some combination of the R2S and NeX chemistry. Storm says it’s earlier than the R2S while retaining the same backend. They are 100% right, I’m glad to say. You can see that it reads earlier as it just overhooks from the more direct trajectories. However, when you move in, it has a deceptively strong enough move. That is unlike the HyRoad X which did read a touch earlier but lost backend. It is probably not obvious in video because it has that deceptively smooth move but the boominess of the Inverted Fe2 core comes through as it keeps driving through the pins and you feel the relationship to the original HyRoad. However, the more important relationship in my mind is to the Infinite Physix. I feel they are perfect compliments with the Infinite being a clear Mid Defined ball and the Night Road being a Mid Late. They are relatable because to the eye, they have the identical front part shape and then the Infinite shows off a clearly stronger move with the Night Road just being a touch less.
A Power Player’s Perspective
Here is Tyler as our power player and the Storm Night Road looked just as good for him. You can see the length it gets and while it is strong downlane, it is really a very strong sharper arc for him as opposed to a hockey stick looking move. It’s not all or nothing. It gave him miss room to the outside especially on this medium-light condition. The interesting bit is that while the Infinite looked great for me and overly smooth for him, the Night Road both gave us a clear Mid Late shape that because of some of that smoothness is possibly a benchmark for some bowlers. Tyler had a great look and got very comfortable with it, never feeling like it was running out of steam.
Stroker’s Stance
Here is Bryan testing the Night Road as well. I might sound like a broken record by now but it looked very good for Bryan also. Same story, it is in a similar hook potential to the HyRoad X or HyRoad Pearl for him but the Night Road is immensely more usable. Those balls really had a narrow window of usability for him. HyRoad was kind of longish without much punch. HyRoad Pearl is still a ball he keeps in his bag for the lightest volume patterns. However, on this medium-light pattern, the Night Road was a perfect match and he really saw a shape that was clean enough while not feeling squirty yet it still had strong drive through the pins. That strong arc gave him very good carry and so the thought is it would be ideal for those drier patterns where he gets good reliable motion with strong backend as opposed to having to opt for something shiny and possibly on the over/under side.
Final Thoughts
The Night Road really seems like the perfect Mid Late ball. I was a little unsure about the ReX pearl cover for a while but that has dissipated. It seemed so clean on the Dark Code that it put a strong cored ball into the Mid Late category. Then the Infinite Physix comes out and I was like whoa, this is what this can do? Next comes the Night Road and it’s a great fit with the ReX cover not disappointing one bit. All 3 bowlers found the ball to work very well to their liking. It blends release deltas. Just flat out works!
Thanks for watching.