The JOYRIDE takes the same smooth rolling and (for a weaker ball) hard hitting core and wraps it with the Reactor^TM pearl cover familiar from the TROPICAL BREEZE.  With the same core, the tech specs for the JOYRIDE are the same as the RIDE.

Because of the short 2” pin that my RIDE came with, I chose what for me is a smooth rolling pin under the bridge layout.  The numbers are 55 x 4.75 x 75.  It performed really well for me on typical wet/dry STL house shots because it allowed me to attack the dry without it jerking left early.  I also found it to be smooth enough to be effective on some versions of short sport patterns, including the most recent version of Cheetah being used in the PBA’s Midwest Region.

By comparison to the RIDE, the JOYRIDE has proven to be just what you would expect the pearl version of an originally released hybrid to be.  It’s cleaner through the front part of the lane and provides a touch more angularity down lane.  For me, this has proven to be problematic on STL house shots because the combination of pearl cover and weaker core only accentuate the wet/dry.   It’s not strong enough for me to get into the puddle and open up the lane with and the pearl cover reacts too strongly when it sees friction for me to stay right and attack the dry with it.

However, I have found the JOYRIDE a successful tool in this fall’s STL Fall Sport League during the quarter that we bowled on the PBA Midwest Region’s most recent version of Cheetah.   I’m presuming it’s because of the type of oil being used at the center that hosts the league that bowling on this version of Cheetah has meant encountering a lot of oil migration.   The RIDE was money for starters going from about 8-board at the arrows out to 4 or 5 at the breakpoint.  After the pattern transitioned, the RIDE lost its good motion on the back end and produced two and sometimes three pocket 7-10’s a game.   The JOYRIDE eventually proved to be the perfect antidote for that problem as the pearl cover and a pin above the bridge layout resulted in enough stored energy and back end pop to get through the pins with decent carry and without having to move to a different zone of the lane.

The numbers on my JOYRIDE are approximately 50 x 5 x 45.  Based on what I’ve seen so far, I anticipate that the JOYRIDE will provide a good one-two punch along with the RIDE in tourneys on some short patterns and/or in the later stages of other tournaments when migrating further into the middle of the lane causes carry to go away.