Regarding lane specifications, I'm sure there are specs regarding lane length, width, and levelness...but I was wondering if there are any specs for softness or bounciness.

I bowl in a 70 wooden-lane house and some of the lanes (4 or 5 pairs) are in such abysmal condition that when the ball hits the heads, it will bounce, as if you it was thrown onto a trampoline.  If your lucky, it will bounce in the same trajectory as thrown, but usually it will check left or right several boards.  I've had good 10-pin spare attempts litterly kick-right and bounce into the air and drop into the channel.  It's hard enough battling against oil conditions and normal variables, but the added frustration of knowing that the ball can kick several boards right or even bounce off the lane is too much.

I'm averaging 230 this year (thankfully most of the time I am not bowling on the bad pairs where I am lucky to get a 600 on the same oil pattern) and my loft is comparable to Mika Koivuniemi or Walter Ray for example...not extreme loft by any means.

These bouncy pairs had their heads injected with something a year or two ago in an attempt to stiffen them up, but it only minimally helped.  To make it worse, they didn't resurface any wood past the arrows..so, now there is a ramp where the ball rolls from the resurfaced heads uphill past the arrows.  Even if you lay the ball down smoothly to avoid the bounce, the ball can catch a little air as it hits the ramp by the arrows and this just kills your roll.

 

 

Edited by RyboFlavin on 4/6/2012 at 10:51 PM