Hi Charlest,
Sorry about the delay in responding, but I was unaware that this thread had changed until MI 2 AZ contacted me via email.
Now, on to your questions......
While it is obviously not the most important question in the world about bowling balls, I think it might be a good idea to consider specifying the mass bias strength of your asymmetric/mass bias cores. Can you? Would you?
Could we? Yes. Would we? I don't know. Honestly, I think the manufacturers are putting out way more information than necessary as it is. If we put out all of the technical information that we get from a bowling ball, even most of the very good pro shop operators who have well above average intelligence would get confused with the figures.
Out of curiosity, when you speak of mass bias strength, which variation are you speaking of? Do you mean strength based on spin time with a Determinator or similar machine? Do you mean a number based on comparisons within our line (like the 1-100 numbers)? Or do you mean the intermediate differential (the difference between the high and middle RG measurements)? Each of these will tell you something a little bit different.
See, here is the thing, any real shift in weight from the center of a ball could be considered a mass bias. In addition, a cores mass bias strength varies depending on what shell material is used on the ball. It is possible to create a core that has a high mass bias strength, yet when you encapsulate it with the shell material, you end up with virtually no mass bias strength whatsoever.
If you want to get really technical, something like our Immortals have 3 seperate mass bias locations due to caps that are located outside of the central body. That being said, most people view a "mass bias" as the dense portion of the core that protrudes from the central body and pulls the CG in a direction away from the pin. Using this basic definition, you would say that the Immortal has one mass bias (which is actually a negative mass bias, because the cap on the side is actually lighter than the shell material, creating a true mass bias opposite the cap location).
I assume that when you go on to talk about the mass bias differential, you are talking about the intermediate differential. Having a high intermediate differential vs a low intermediate differential, could have an impact on how you lay the ball out, but the overall differential has a greater effect on the balls performance than the intermediate differential. Also, keep in mind that once you drill the ball, you are changing the balls RG, Differential and mass bias strength, especially if you drill in to a dense portion of the core. You could start out with a ball that has a high intermediate differential and end up with a ball that has a low intermediate differential based on the way the ball is drilled.
The question for me, is at what point do we stop? My concern is that we can get too in depth with technical information and end up spending every waking hour on the phone with pro shops and bowlers trying to explain all of the details on our equipment. We could probably write 50 pages of technical information on every ball that we release, most of which would be completely unnecessary and make absolutely no sense to bowlers.
OK, now that I am off my soap box....lol, listing an intermediate differential wouldn't take much effort, and is probably something that we should think about doing.
Thanks again,
Jason Wonders
Visionary Bowling Products
