The first entry in Storm’s new Signature series, the Storm Timeless was designed with the help of two-handed bowler and PBA sensation Jason Belmonte. Our Storm Timeless review will give you a panoramic view of everything this unique new bowling ball has to offer. Hint – it’s a lot!
The folks at Storm went all out in their design of the Storm Timeless, fine-tuning some of the best features of their previous bowling ball releases. What works? What needs a little more work? Where does the Storm Timeless fit when it comes to the best high-performance bowling balls on the market today? Delve into our Storm Timeless review to find out!
Overview
One of the easiest and most responsive high-performance bowling balls to have been released over the past several years, the Storm Timeless pairs undeniable lane length with one of the most explosive back-end reactions you’re gonna find.
Storm decided not to mess with a good thing, keeping the popular R2S Hybrid in place as the cover stock for the Timeless. However, they did tweak things with a two-tiered Dual-Drive weight block which has added an extra oomph of violence and pin carry upon impact.
The Storm Timeless also sports an impressively high differential and RG, furthering the narrative of the ball as an undeniable heavy hitter while also promising that your ball will maintain its track on the lane without wildly flaring out.
Out of all the balls we’ve tested in the past 12 months, the Storm Timeless has one of the most unique and powerful kicks into motion at the breakpoint. This motion doesn’t stop until the ball effortlessly glides through the heads and releases its energy in a final back-end burst.
The Storm Timeless is simply a strong bowling ball which doesn’t sacrifice control for impact. It’s reactive but not overreactive. It’s dynamite but controlled dynamite. While the ball isn’t primed for heavy-oiled long patterns or dry patterns, it still has enough in the tank to power through any conditions thrown its way.
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Features, Specs & Materials
FEATURES:
The R2S Hybrid Reactive cover stock has been beloved by bowling enthusiasts ever since setting alleys alight as part of the crowd favorite Storm Hy-Road. It’s one of the more durable hybrid reactive cover stocks on the market, adjusting well to pretty much any conditions while offering unique reactivity and firepower at the back end.
Paired with an impeccable 1500 grit box finish, the R2S Hybrid Reactive has very little tendency to flare out or overreact to lane conditions. It keeps its line on the lane while turning friction into pin impact gold at the end of your shot.
What really excited us about testing this ball for our Storm Timeless review was the ball’s brand new core. Functioning as a dual core with unique energy storing capabilities, the Dual-Drive weight block displaces energy in such a way that you’re pretty much guaranteed to hit the pins harder than you ever have before. It’s a wonder of controlled violence which, in turn, makes the R2S Reactive cover stock that much more effective and potent.
SPECS:
Color: Blue, Platinum, Black
Core: Dual-Drive (symmetrical)
Coverstock: R2S Reactive Hybrid
Finish: 1500 Grit Polished
RG: 2.57
Differential: 0.050
Flare potential: Minimal
Recommended Lane Condition: Medium Oiled
MATERIALS
The Storm Timeless is undoubtedly beautifully crafted. The aforementioned R2S Hybrid Reactive cover stock takes the normal urethane base and ups the ante with the hybrid reactive treatment. Somehow, it keeps most of the durability of a urethane cover stock unlike the majority of urethane-based hybrid reactive cover stocks.
The symmetrical Dual-Drive weight block is a combination core at its most unique. It’s one of the strongest fired ceramic cores on the market with no notable energy absorbed by the core upon impact.
Advantages & Disadvantages
Advantages:
There aren’t a lot of high-performance bowling balls which offer the lane length of the Storm Timeless, let alone with the penchant to handle even the freshest of oil conditions. Our Storm Timeless review was simply a joy to conduct because of just how easy this ball is to get into a groove from any starting point.
The ball clears the front of the lane with minimal effort and holds its line to the pocket, whether from a straight approach or a few boards to either side of the pocket. This ball is a medium-oiled powerhouse from any approach spot, lining itself back up to the pocket and forgiving mistakes better than pretty much any reactive resin bowling ball we’ve played with.
The real star of the Storm Timeless show is the back-end reaction – an absolute study in what a perfectly-crafted bowling ball can do. This ball expends almost none of its energy before hitting the breakpoint. It saves it all up for a furious finish once the ball exits the oil patterns and reaches the impact zone.
What results is an absolutely crushing back-end burst which will lead to pin trajectories unseen with any bowling ball you’ve used before. No matter what angles you try or how you tweak your hook with the Storm Timeless, you’re in for a treat upon pin impact (and likely, on your scorecard!)
Disadvantages:
In all honesty, there truly aren’t too many disadvantages to the Storm Timeless for intermediate and expert bowlers. The only thing which may mute the Storm Timeless is extremely long and heavy oil patterns with little quit to them.
You can fix this by sanding the 1500 grit box finish, but that could take away the ball’s efficacy on other oil patterns down the road. While the Storm Timeless doesn’t have a tendency to get submerged in heavy-oiled patterns, it can lose some of its back-end burst and become a bit more normalized from a reactive resin bowling ball perspective.
This ball isn’t made for dry lane conditions as its primary power source is oil reactivity. It’s not unusable on dry lanes, but it’s not going to sport the advantages it does on medium and medium-heavy patterns.
And as with most high-performance bowling balls, the Storm Timeless may be a no go for beginners who aren’t used to heavy reactivity. The Storm Timeless is more forgiving than most but the learning curve is still sharp for the uninitiated.
Our Thoughts
The Storm Timeless is, hands down, one of the most complete high-performance bowling balls we’ve ever tested. It’s a reactive hybrid dream which tempers its reactivity with impressive lane length and pick-up-and-play potential. If you’re prone to playing on medium and medium-heavy oiled lanes, the Storm Timeless is almost guaranteed to increase your scores and add to the firepower you can create on impact.
There aren’t many bowling balls which can hit this hard while still being finessed enough to create some unique, unseen angles and pin trajectories. If you’re serious about bowling and are ready to take your game to the next level, you simply can’t do much better than the Storm Timeless.
Overall Score: 9.5/10
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