Just the second bowling ball to bear the Katana name, the Radical Katana Legend hits shelves with a ton of hype thanks to the success of the original Katana. Our Radical Katana Legend review will give you a complete overview of this much-anticipated release, breaking everything down we possibly can so you can be a much more informed purchase decision.
How does the core from the original Katana fare with a brand new cover stock formulation surrounding it? Is the Radical Katana Legend worth purchasing if you’ve already got the original Katana in your bag? Dive into our extensive Radical Katana Legend bowling ball review for the answer to these questions and much more!
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Overview
The original Katana is known for its distinct and undeniable down-lane motion, so it would have been fair to expect the same or just a little better out of the Radical Katana Legend. Instead, the Radical Katana Legend creates it own sterling reputation by outstripping its predecessor by leaps and bounds in down-lane responsiveness.
While the Radical Katana Legend maintains the same powerful and highly angular asymmetrical core of the original Katana, it ups the reactivity ante with a brand new reactive pearl cover stock. What’s absolutely breathtaking about the Radical Katana Legend’s performance is just how well it performs on a wide variety of oil densities and oil pattern lengths.
If you’re familiar with the strong down-lane angle of the original Katana and loved it, you’re going to be even more impressed about how the Radical Katana Legend forgives off hits just left of the pin pocket. There’s so much hitting power and leverage to the Radical Katana Legend that you don’t have to be slotted in 100% to get extraordinary pin carry and off-the-wall pin trajectories.
In short, the Radical Katana Legend has taken all of the best aspects of the original Katana and amplified them with a keen eye on absolute aggressiveness. This bowling ball doesn’t hesitate, especially on medium oil patterns where it has just enough fuel to get extremely angular and blow up the pins with a dynamite back-end reaction.
Features, Specs & Materials
FEATURES:
The introduction of the Forged + Pearl reactive pearl cover stock has dialed up the hook potential and breakpoint angularity from that of the original Katana. This is one of the most aggressive and fiery pearlized cover stocks on the market today.
The Radical Katana Legend’s cover stock is only made more aggressive and more angular with the help of the proven Katana Asymmetric asymmetrical core. This core helps the cover stock store maximum amounts of energy for some incredible pin impact.
The Radical Katana Legend comes out of the box with a 500 and 1000 SiaAir and Crown Factory Compound finish which helps this cover stock cut through deeper fronts with efficacy and relative ease.
SPECS:
Color: Black, Red, Gold
Core: Katana Asymmetric
Coverstock: Forged + Pearl Reactive Pearl
Finish: 500 / 1000 SiaAir / Crown Factory Compound
RG: 2.503
Differential: 0.050
Flare potential: Significant
Recommended Lane Condition: Medium
MATERIALS
The durability of the Forged + Pearl reactive pearl cover stock is absolutely incredible considering just how much total reactivity the folks over at Radical have packed into it. It almost feels like you’re cheating with how strong this cover stock is and how sharp it gets off the spot with firepower to spare.
The constitution of the Katana Asymmetric asymmetrical core is so dense that there is a noticeable low center of gravity to this ball. That means added leverage for the ball to get underneath the pins and loft them in some amazing ways upon impact.
Advantages & Disadvantages
Advantages:
For such an aggressive high-performance ball which traffics in some amazing angularity, the Radical Katana Legend is an absolute marvel of overall versatility. While the Radical Katana Legend is best on an average length oil pattern or in medium oil density, it has been built to sacrifice very little efficacy and reactivity when things deepen or break down just a bit.
That versatility means that, no matter your style, you’re going to get some fantastic lane length and impressive down-lane motion in a litany of oil conditions. Lower-rev bowlers will love how this ball increases their back-end volatility and opens up angles not available before. Higher-rev bowlers will love the concentrated hitting power and increased pin carry upon pocket impact.
The other amazingly versatile aspect of the Radical Katana Legend is that you lose very little to no reactivity when you resurface the ball for varying oil conditions. The constitution of the cover stock and the kinetic motion of the asymmetrical core ensure that you’re going to get the down-lane motion and back-end booms you’re accustomed to with the original box finish.
To put it simply, the Radical Katana Legend is a bowling ball Swiss army knife. It has been perfectly calibrated to do more things and more things well than even the most celebrated high-performance bowling balls on the market. If you want a ball that’s going to exceed your expectations in a wide swath of different areas, you can’t do much better than the Radical Katana Legend.
Disadvantages:
This is very little working against the Radical Katana Legend. It’s not exactly a dry lane bowling ball no matter how strong the cover stock is or how versatile the ball is made to be. You’ll lose lane length and your angularity at the breakpoint will be noticeably dulled in such parched oil conditions.
While there is a significant and strong back-end reaction to the Radical Katana Legend, it does feel like the original had a little bit more oomph at the end of the pattern. It’s barely noticeable and you’re still going to be wildly impressed with the back-end reaction, but it’s worth noting if you’re graduating from the original Katana to the Radical Katana Legend.
Our Thoughts
The Radical Katana Legend is a nearly flawless bowling ball that checks more boxes than the vast majority of the bowling balls we’ve reviewed. It hits hard, it hits consistently, and hits with an angularity that will lead to creative entries and powerful pin carry.
We’ll dock it a little for some dry lane struggles, but it’s still as close to perfect as we’ve tested just yet.
Overall Score: 9.75 out of 10
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