having recently made the switch to the Motiv brand, i am questioning how well these balls take to cover changes?  specifically the sigma hybrid, the thrash and the venom strike.

also, what brand of polish and cleaners do you recommend?  i was thinking of giving the Motiv brand a try, unless there is something out there that works better.

any thoughts

I have all of the Motiv polishes and the such.  The Power Gel Clean and Power Gel Scuff are pretty good (especially the scuff).  But, for me, the Power Gel Polish isn't all that.  I use 3M Finesse-It II (I think that is what it is called). 

I wouldn't worry about using the specific products from the ball manufacturer you use.  Use what you like and that should be good enough.

Don't worry about their Gel polish. It is a little unusual in that  it seems even less abrasive than my regular polish, Snake Oil, which itself is considered non-abrasive. You have to use a good deal of Power Gel and rub/press rather firmly, but that's a good thing as it allows you to truly fine tune the degree of polish/shine you want need.

Thanks for the info.

How well do the balls take to the cover changes?

I use Motiv mainly and have changed about everything they produce.  Though I will say that the OOB surface the way it was designed works about as good as anything.  The only one, I don't use as it came out OOB is the Venom Strike at OOB P3000 with it's low Rg and for light medium it just rolled to early for me on a 39' THS.  The rest I use as they have come.  Motiv does know a lot about their covers/cores design for early, delayed, and late hook in it's line-up.