I gave the manager of our local house a copy of the specs for the five PBA patterns, so he punched a couple of them into the lane machine, and put out pattern B for us to try.
Although the backends seemed snappier than usual, causing more than the usual number of splits, it didn't seem all that different from what we had been using, which is your typical x-mas tree pattern, run to about 35 feet, buffed to 42 feet.
I told the manager that I'd heard them say on the PBA show that it takes a few runs with the new pattern to "erase" the old pattern, and that with old wooden lanes, you still might have oil in spots where the pattern doesn't call for it, because so much oil has seeped into the wood over time.
He and his assistant basically told me I was crazy, that there isn't any carryover of the old pattern, so we're bowling on a "pure" PBA pattern B. Doesn't sound right to me.
Anyone know if I'm right, that it takes a few oilings to entirely remove the standard house pattern?