Spider cracking

[Sourtower]

I recently had my bowling balls checked out to see if they were up to USBC standards before bowling in a tournament, and the pro shop guy at the bowling alley noticed my Storm bowling ball had what he referred to as 'spider cracking.' He said that Storm bowling balls were notorious for this. Anybody else have any issues with Storm bowling balls spider cracking? Also, he said I could keep bowling on it. I won't be able to take my bowling ball into my own pro shop guy until Wednesday. Any thoughts or suggestions on this?

[got_a_300]

I've seen other brands of bowling balls do the same thing
with what he called the spider cracking. I have seen Track,
Columbia, Ebonite, and so on do the same thing so it is not
just a Storm ball problem.

[Mudpuppy]

My Brunswick Melee cracked straight across where the finger holes are drilled - small crack. I am going to have my pro shop guy check it out. Doesn't throw any different - still spray cans all over the lanes fine.

[ALazySavage]

Sourtower: I'm going on the assumption that you are not in the Phoenix, Arizona area...if so this may be coming from the same person. Basically the rumor that I have heard about the Storm cracking issue is as follows:

Storm is one of, if not the most, popular bowling ball on the market at this time which is causing them issues in keeping their supply up with the demand of their product. What this is allegedly causing them to do is not allow enough time between the core curing and ball pouring stages of production. Essentially this person was saying is that when the bowling ball is poured around the core the core has not fully cured in some instances. This unfully cured core has the potential of expanding and is much more sensitive to temperature changes. In this case if the core expands too much it will cause the shell of the ball to crack.

I'm going to qualify this post and say that I personally have not researched this claim and still throw some Roto Grip and Storm equipment. WHat Storm ball was it that has the spider cracking and when did you get it?

[Sourtower]

Sourtower: I'm going on the assumption that you are not in the Phoenix, Arizona area...if so this may be coming from the same person. Basically the rumor that I have heard about the Storm cracking issue is as follows:

Storm is one of, if not the most, popular bowling ball on the market at this time which is causing them issues in keeping their supply up with the demand of their product. What this is allegedly causing them to do is not allow enough time between the core curing and ball pouring stages of production. Essentially this person was saying is that when the bowling ball is poured around the core the core has not fully cured in some instances. This unfully cured core has the potential of expanding and is much more sensitive to temperature changes. In this case if the core expands too much it will cause the shell of the ball to crack.

I'm going to qualify this post and say that I personally have not researched this claim and still throw some Roto Grip and Storm equipment. WHat Storm ball was it that has the spider cracking and when did you get it?

First off, thanks for the replies by everyone. I am in Chicago, IL. The bowling ball is the Storm Zero Gravity, and I bought it about 3 weeks ago.

[rv driver]

<Curmudgeon rant warning>
If bowling balls were made out of good old rubber, spider cracking wouldn't be an issue.


Just sayin'.

[Sourtower]

Just a quick update, I took the ball to my pro shop guy and he said that it was still ok to keep using the bowling ball. I've only had the bowling ball for about a month now, so I still have 11 months left on Storm's 1 year limited warranty. My pro shop guy said that as of right now, the spider cracking isn't too bad, but definitely if it worsens to bring it back. They would then take a picture of it, send it to their distributor, and then wait for a replacement. A big sigh of relief for me.