Ball NPS Score: 100.00
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Roto Grip Sinister Ball Specs:

- Color: Neon Yellow & White Pearl / Navy Solid All colors do vary somewhat from the picture shown.
- Core: Cage Core
- Coverstock: 76H Hybrid Reactive
- Factory Finish: 4000-grit Pad
- Reaction: Ease through the fronts, continuation through the breakpoint
- Radius of Gyration (RG): 2.52**
- Differential (Diff): 0.054**
- ** RG and Diff are based off of 15 lb. balls
- Recommended Lane Condition: Heavy Oil
- A few tiny pit holes in the cover stock of the ball are normal

LANE CONDITION

41ft Medium THS


COMMENTS

Likes: This ball is going to be a hit for Roto Grip.  I think of this ball in the vein of the Defiant Soul except that it's more aggressive off the dry.  Really overpowers the midlane.  This is a strong ball but not so much so that it has no energy on the backends.  Very strong continuous motion.


PICTURES AND/OR VIDEOS
http://tamerbowling.com/roto-grip-sinister-bowling-ball-review/

Sinister - 60 x 4 x40 pin thru ring finger - out of the box
Oil patterns: 42ft Kegel Flex with Fire and Ice oil and 43ft PBA regional pattern
Lane surface: HPL installed 10 years ago and rescreened in 2014
On the house pattern, the ball was a little too strong in the middle of the lane when standing 22 and looking at 6-8... Moved into 29 and looked at 12-14 and the ball held better and was really strong thru the pin deck. I was really thinking that with the strong layout in this ball, it would burned up before it got to the pocket, but it did not one bit. I put the Sinister on the Innovative ball spinner and hit it with 4000ab and polished it and it gave me that additional length i was looking for when playing the lighter oil part of both patterns. On the 43ft pattern with the out of the box finish, it was just too strong to play the "playable" outside part of the pattern, BUT once polished, the Sinister was the complete package, on the fresh and also while I and another left hander beat the pattern up, I just move a little bit after a couple of frames and continued to tuck in a little to stay in the playable area.

42 ft THS
Layout: pin of above the ring finger with Cg and mass bias kicked out to the right of the thumb hole, maybe an inch or so. 

This ball is truly amazing and has a sick color scheme. The ball was very clean thru the heads and with a strong move towards the pockets once it hit friction. I was able to get deep in the oil and have the ball still reacts and hits with power. I was able to get as deep as I wanted and it just kept making the turn and crushing the pocket. This ball is a must have for your heavy-medium oil arsenal.

Own It

SINISTER review by Storm staffer Jeff Richgels
      Drilled July 4, 2014
 
      The SINISTER specs are here:
   http://www.rotogrip.com/balls/sinister

      The SINISTER video is here:
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=le0tJsyuPks

      You can see a picture of it at the end of my blog here:
   http://www.11thframe.com/reviews/44
 

 
The SINISTER is Roto Grip’s latest HP4 line ball and for those looking for strong motion for oil, this powerful hybrid will not disappoint you.
 
In an effort to take advantage of its power – and following the old adage of “drill a strong ball strong” – I drilled my SINISTER with the pin above and a little right of the ring finger and the drilling angle at about 75 degrees. A big weight hole was needed to get it static legal.

(I am not providing numbers on my drilling because I just don’t know what to use for my PAP numbers. For years, I used old numbers that I know weren’t accurate and my re-measured numbers came on one of my experimental grips that I gave up on as I returned to my long-time grip. I plan to get re-measured when I get a chance.)
 
Because of how strong it is, I’ve really only had one opportunity to use my SINISTER in competition: at the PBA50 Tour tourney in Hammond, Indiana where the pattern was the 47-foot PBA50 Scorpion. But combined with some practice on Sport and house shots, it was more than enough to give me a solid handle on the ball. 

Essentially, I consider the SINISTER a great benchmark ball for higher  volume patterns – it’s not so powerful and jumpy that I have to get left and open up my angles, which is a bad thing on many fresh patterns.
 
Especially on the second qualifying day in Hammond, the lanes were wet/dry and it was incredibly easy for me to leave a 2-10 combination when I pulled it.
 
On the first day, the lanes weren’t quite as wet/dry and the SINISTER was not my best option for carry.
 
If I could go back and do it over, I would definitely have pulled the SINISTER out earlier in the second day – it worked great when I finally got it out, including a final game 279 that ultimately left me in 26th place, two spots shy of the cut.
 
The SINISTER is a relatively easy review: It’s a strong ball that rolls very hard and continuously, assuming there is a decent amount of oil on the lane.

The combination of the new Cage core with the 76H hybrid cover is a great pairing.
 
I would say it rolls similar to the Roto Grip TOTALLY DEFIANT, but with a tad smoother motion. It’s also not far from the HYPER CELL, but gets down the lane easier and doesn’t make quite as dramatic a move. (The SINISTER lets me play straighter as a benchmark ball on that fresh pattern, where the HYPER CELL would make me get left and open up more.)
 
With the SINISTER, I don’t have to “fight” as much to get it down the lane as I do with the HYPER CELL, or the Storm SYNC. The SYNC and HYPER CELL may make a more aggressive move at the breakpoint than the SINISTER, but that just means I have different reactions to choose from.

I have no need to try it with a shiny surface, and have seen my best results with a rougher surface than the 4,000-grit box finish – 1,500 Turbo sandbagger has been excellent.

If you’re looking for a ball for heavy oil with strong but relatively smooth motion, it’s a great choice. Even players with high revs should be able to use the SINISTER on heavy oil. Those with low revs may want to drill it with a low pin, or perhaps choose the HYPER CELL.

I’m expecting to get a lot of use out of my SINISTER in wet/dry house shot tournaments during the coming bowling season. 
 

Roto Grip Sinister Ball Review by PJ Haggerty

After throwing the Hyper Cell, our wonderful team and Roto Grip created a motion that is a perfect complement, while keeping a similar motion.  If you loved the Hyper Cell, you will love the Sinster as well.  I can honestly say, the motions are very similar between the Hyper Cell and Sinister are the same.  They are both forward, heavy rolling motions that are very versatile on many types of conditions.  I’d say the real difference with the Sinister is the down lane motion.  It provides more pop while still reading the body of the lane. 

I’ve drilled two of them so far.  The first one is a high pin above my ring finger with the mass bias just above my thumb.  For me, this comes out to 5.5 x 5 x 95. I polished this one and am able to use it when some oil gets down lane and some of the symmetrical balls don’t go through the pins the right way.  Also, when some symmetrical balls are too quick off the spot, the Sinister keeps a slower response time with still a clean and angular motion.  The 2nd one I drilled is a lower pin under my middle finger with a bigger shift.  This maps out to be 6 x 4 x 25 and it’s a much stronger and forward motion.  This slows the response time down a lot and still provides a great motion.

The Sinister takes surface well too.  Even though it is in the HP-4 line, the cover is still clean enough to scuff up and dig into without using too much energy.  I can see the high rev guys using this to cover a lot of boards and the straighter guys using it as their new piece for the league season.  Go drill one and #OwnIt!!

Right Handed
Ball weight:  15
Rev Rate:  378
Ball Speed:  18.2
Axis Tilt:  6.67
Axis Rotation:  45*
PAP:  4 1/8 horizontal, 11/16 up
Layout:  50 x 4 x 50

I decided to use this layout because I wanted a few different asymmetrical cores with the same drill to see how much the reaction can differ.  It really has enlightened me to have 3 balls with the same layout and see totally different reactions.  Early on, this ball won me over.

Using it on a THS, I was just standing left, trying to bounce it out to the dry (right of 9) from our puddle (around 10-12).  With the OOB finish, the Sinister acquired lane shine rather quickly, which is probably a good thing.  This layout causes it to be early and shape like a banana.  I like the overall movement and as it shined up, it got a bit more length and turned the corner quite strong.  I was really able to open the lane up and just migrate left deeper into the puddle, making 2-1 moves.  It never gave up and as long as I kept my speed consistent, there were no issues as the conditions broke down.

I also used this one on the Kegel Abbey Road pattern.  The tournament was uber-high scoring and everyone was talking about how it played like a beefed-up house shot.  I could not argue.  I started around 25, rolling at 15 at the arrows, swinging out to about 6-10 (plenty of room…), and never looked back.  Because of the volume, I only made a couple of 2-1 moves over the course of the 4 games, while moving pairs.  I ended up averaging in the 240s and qualifying for the stepladder as the 2 seed.  I didn’t win the tournament, but being able to use this ball for the entire tournament, including the stepladder was quite impressive.  The overall motion was really nice, which I assume was because of the volume.  It wasn’t as early and made a bit of a sharper move at the end of the pattern, which had great results.

I can say that this ball will go anywhere I do when the pattern is anything with medium or medium long lengths and there is volume.  I find that the more I roll it, the more I like it.

The Roto Grip Sinister…you should #OwnIt!