Motiv Tribal Bowling Ball Review

The Tribal uses a new core shape and design for Motiv. The light bulb shape has appeared in weight block design since early reactive resin balls. Motiv’s version of this design is the Halogen core, a medium RG/medium differential offering. The Motiv Tribal is the second release from Motiv this month that uses the Fusion Reactive Pearl coverstock. This time the shell comes at a 2000 grit polished finish.

This shiny cover ball was best on our medium test pattern. The Tribal gave our testers good length through the front with a strong move at the breakpoint and back end. The shiny box finish had Stroker playing a more direct line to the pocket. His rev rate was not high enough to get the Tribal to recover on shots swung farther right. Tweener was around the same mark at the arrows but was able to get his ball farther right at the breakpoint. Cranker was deeper than both testers at the arrows and able to go around where the other testers were getting the Tribal down lane.

Stroker liked his reaction best on our dry test pattern. The extra hook provided by this pattern allowed him to find the recovery he was missing on the medium pattern on shots farther right. Tweener and Cranker increased their ball speed to keep the Tribal in the pocket on this pattern. We were able to keep the Tribal at the box finish on both of these test patterns.

Moving to the sport pattern, all three testers needed some help controlling the breakpoint. The Tribal wanted to snap too hard at the back end, making it difficult to control on this flatter pattern. We lowered the finish to a 2000 wet sand lowered the finish to a 2000 wet sand to help smooth out the violent move we had down lane.

We needed this surface on the heavy pattern as well. Even with the rougher finish, our reaction was better with stronger balls like the Cruel Intent on the heavy stuff.

Strengths

We really liked how much energy this ball saved for the breakpoint. Even as the lanes got drier, the Tribal had no signs of wanting to hook early.

Weaknesses

We had little use for the Tribal on our heavy test pattern. Motiv offers plenty of better ball options for these types of conditions.

Overall Summary

The Tribal combines the most successful coverstock Motiv has used to date surrounding a new core shape for them. While it will not be a benchmark type ball, it will definitely come in handy as lanes break down or when they hook from the get go.