B&M vs Intamin

[SuperSous]

B&M for me, partially because I have yet to lose my Intamin virginity.

[kailisun98]

Definitely B&M. B&M loopers are much smoother than Intamin Loopers. Just look at Intami's 10 inversion coasters! B&M builds better and more reliable coasters!

[willthethrill]

It's Intamin all the way. B&M stopped innovating as of May 2nd, 1992. At this point, nearly all of their coasters are formulaic and uninspired. Can't blame them for achieving perfection in a few areas of design and milking it for all their worth.

 

Flawlessly engineered? Yes.

Aesthetically pleasing? Quite.

Safe and reliable? Without question.

 

B&M coasters are all of these things, but so is the toaster oven that's been sitting on my kitchen counter for the last 10 years. Still gets the job done but I got bored of it after the first couple pieces of toast.

[cfc]

Neither Intamin nor B&M coasters can make toast; therefore, your toaster oven has the advantage.

 

I prefer Intamin because they keep pushing the envelope, although B&M can still rise to the occasion sometimes (for example, Hair Raiser at Ocean Park).

[alwaysairtime14]

It's Intamin all the way. B&M stopped innovating as of May 2nd, 1992. At this point, nearly all of their coasters are formulaic and uninspired. Can't blame them for achieving perfection in a few areas of design and milking it for all their worth.

 

Flawlessly engineered? Yes.

Aesthetically pleasing? Quite.

Safe and reliable? Without question.

 

B&M coasters are all of these things, but so is the toaster oven that's been sitting on my kitchen counter for the last 10 years. Still gets the job done but I got bored of it after the first couple pieces of toast.

 

And your toast gets more airtime than a B&M

[gerstlaueringvar]

Definitely B&M. B&M loopers are much smoother than Intamin Loopers. Just look at Intami's 10 inversion coasters! B&M builds better and more reliable coasters!

Intamins getting rough doesn't mean B&Ms are not getting rough! I had terrible rides on Scream, Riddler's Revenge, Chimelong's Dive Machine, Mantis, X-Flight and even Gatekeeper! Gatekeeper is the newest coaster I've been on and it's definitely the roughest B&M I've been on. I don't know if there is anything happening in that company now... Mantis hurt my head and my legs, I got some bad head bangings that were worse than SLCs on Great White. As for Intamin, they have rough rides but for me 10 Inversion coaster is actually smoother than Dive Machine! I might be wrong that I rode them this late spring and there might be some fixing taken place on Dive Machine. Also I found Maverick which is my No.1 steel incredibly smooth, much smoother than any B&M I've been on. So my point of view is: INTAMIN I LOVE YOU!!!!!

[alpengeist04]

^Not to mention that I have noticed a rattle on all the B&M hypers over the last couple years. I'm not saying they're rough or anything, but there are definitely some smoother Intamins out there.

[Moose]

I thing B&Ms are more reliable, but Intamin likes to push the envelope and in doing so get some real winners. Even their foray into spinners (Tornado at Bakken) are awesome.

[loop-de-loop]

It's Intamin all the way. B&M stopped innovating as of May 2nd, 1992. At this point, nearly all of their coasters are formulaic and uninspired. Can't blame them for achieving perfection in a few areas of design and milking it for all their worth.

 

Flawlessly engineered? Yes.

Aesthetically pleasing? Quite.

Safe and reliable? Without question.

 

B&M coasters are all of these things, but so is the toaster oven that's been sitting on my kitchen counter for the last 10 years. Still gets the job done but I got bored of it after the first couple pieces of toast.

 

And your toast gets more airtime than a B&M

 

If Intamin built a toaster your toast would hit the roof when it was done.

[Intamin_coyote]

Intamin easily.

 

I don't care how much downtime I have to wait through when I go to parks that have their coasters. I would rather wait 5 hours to ride Maverick once than wait 5 minutes and ride Gatekeeper, Raptor, or Mantis thirty times!

 

And have I mentioned El Toro? That thing is the greatest coaster I've ever ridden by a LONG shot...

[piedude81]

At this point in time, I have to say Intamin. The past few years, B&M haven't innovated as much as Intamin. And frankly, I just struggle to find "fun" B&M rides. In my limited experience, Intamin is much more forceful and much more fun. But maybe one coaster is all I need to change my mind.

[willthegolfer]

I'm going to have to go B&M, mostly because I've only been on one good Intamin and a few good B&M's, but that may change when I ride Stealth this summer.

[gerstlaueringvar]

Let's see: the B&M's I like only including B:TR clone, S:KC, Wildfire and CP Raptor, all for the forcefulness. I hardly find any of them having airtime.

 

But for Intamin, coasters come with large variability. Maverick, Mega-Lite, TTD, MF, SkyCar, California Sleepin' (I prefer it over any B&M's I've been on even though I nearly fell asleep), Wicked Twister, American Eagle, Happy Valley Shanghai's mine train and even 10 Inversion Coaster!

 

I know that maybe I haven't been on a truly crazy intense B&M like Nemisis, Montu, Pyrenees, Katun, etc but I really think B&M coasters lack some creativity. Element placement are always similar so when B&M decided to eliminate their force, of course people would start complaining. I assume that Cheetah Hunt is not a forceful coaster but I have never seen anyone complain about it. Intamin makes out standing rides and they are always looking for new things but B&M is just...capacity monster.

[BenFreeze]

I prefer B&M. Sure, B&M has made a lot of similar coasters, but each individual coaster has variety. I would personally rather have a so-called "forceless" ride with a variety of different elements that a coaster made up of nothing but intense air time hills. However, I do not have much experience with Intamin, so my opinion is likely to change in the future.

[B&MBoy1982]

Rides with extensive downtime in 2013:

 

Intamin: B&M:

 

Exhibit A. Shoot the Rapids Exhibit A:

Exhibit B. I:305 Exhibit B:

Exhibit C. El Toro Exhibit C:

[GigaG]

Rides with extensive downtime in 2013:

 

Intamin: B&M:

 

Exhibit A. Shoot the Rapids Exhibit A:

Exhibit B. I:305 Exhibit B:

Exhibit C. El Toro Exhibit C:

 

By the same logic, Arrow and Vekoma must be unreliable too because Ninja and X2 had chain breaking issues.

[Intamin_coyote]

And besides, El Toro wasn't down for as nearly as long as I305 probably because Six Flags' maintenance these days is better than what people think, as compared to Cedar Fairs' maintenance which is a lot worse than what people think!!

[LiMiT]

If you want Intamin airtime on a B&M, Goliath at SFOG is as close as it can get. I certainly like B&M, but I agree that their coasters are becoming less and less inspired. I think Goliath was the last of the good generation of B&M coasters. But what I see is a huge group of roller coasters all falling into the same categories and not expanding and innovating.

 

As for Intamin, though I've only been on two of their coasters, I'm very amazed at the versatility of the rides and the sheer amount of categories that the company has developed. Sure, some of these come with design flaws (I305 and Skyrush come to mind), but that is certainly part of the engineering process. If I remember right, the 9th step of the 12 Steps of the Design process is "Refine the design". So I appreciate Intamin's ability to do more with the design process and create a huge variety of coasters, which I plan to ride someday.

 

TL;DR - Intamin.

[gerstlaueringvar]

Let's see, Mitch Hawker 2012 steel coaster poll

 

Top 11: Intamin made GeForce, Bizarro, i305, Kawasemi, SkyRush, iSpeed, Maverick and Mega-Lite.

B&M made Shambhala and Katun. (I think Shambhala will drop out this year.

 

By the way, good job, Mirabilandia!

[coasterbill]

And besides, El Toro wasn't down for as nearly as long as I305 probably because Six Flags' maintenance these days is better than what people think, as compared to Cedar Fairs' maintenance which is a lot worse than what people think!!

 

Great Adventure sent their lift motor to a company in Maryland (I believe) to rebuild it. There was no guarantee that it would be possible by the end of the season but they got really lucky and got it open on Labor Day weekend in plenty of time for the huge Fright Fest crowds.

 

It sounds like it's more luck than anything how much work is actually involved when one of them goes (kind of like a timing belt in your car).

 

By the way please read all of this with an understanding that I know nothing about lift motors and next to nothing about cars but I figured if I used a timing belt analogy I'd make myself sound smart.

[rcjp]

It's funny how when I actually started learning some stuff about coasters I was B&M all the way. Now, though, I'm not so sure. I mean, their more recent rides have been lacking in intensity and innovation. Intamin, on the other hand, keeps making awesome rides and pushing the limit, which I do praise. My favourite ride is Dragon Khan but it's not exactly a coaster that made me go: OMFG!!! in the end. I love it due to its length, overall intensity, variety of inversions and pacing (helped by the fact that the trains fly through the MCBR). If I compare it to my second and third favourites, we have Storm Runner (2) which I found awesome (great launch, nice pops of airtime, great pacing and unique elements) and did make me go "Wow! That was great!". I just don't rank it higher because of its length. Then we have Skyrush which made me think: "OMFG!! That was awwwwesommmeeeee!!!!!!" but falls to third because of the terrible restraints which were incredibly painful.

This kind of illustrates the positive and negative aspects of each manufacturer: B&M makes consistent rides (some of which are great and intense) with great capacity and reliability while Inatmin likes to innovate which may translate into a few problems (like Skyrush's restraints) although my biggest complaint about them is reliability. Every time I go to a park that has an intamin I'm afraid it won't be open: when I went to SFGAd for the first time kingda ka only opened at 3 or 4 p.m. ; in 2012 I went to portaventura and Furius Baco wasn't open in the morning; last summer the only two rides which were closed in the four parks I went to were el toro and maverick (I'm not even counting shoot the rapids) which was very very disappointing as they are considered some of the best coasters in their parks (and even in the world). I've never ever seen a B&M closing for a second, well, actually when I went to great adventure superman had a problem with one of the trains and ran with only one for a while but quickly it returned to a two train operation.

So, all in all, I'm still not sure. Part of me really loves B&M as, when they nail it, there is just something about their rides which makes them feel complete and very competent. But then intamin makes the most kick ass ones. If it stays the same in the future I'm afraid I will have to take intamin, sorry B&M.

[Invertalon]

B&M for me. Most of my top rides are B&M, and is the company I always get excited about with new rides. While clearly not as "extreme" as Intamin, I just prefer their rides overall.

 

I don't exactly care how much ejector air and g-forces a ride has, as long as it is fun for me. B&M wins my heart.

[Ryan P.]

I prefer Intamin because they try and innovate the roller coaster while B&M has not done any thing radical besides the Dive Coaster (I really like Griffon). I love both but Intamin takes the win. I have yet to ride Skyrush but Bizzaro is a spectacular hyper coaster and El Toro is breathtaking!! I would give B&M the crown for best inverted coaster company, but Intamin I prefer overall.

[GrapesLie]

Can I switch my vote to RMC?

[DJeXeL]

^If by RMC, you mean Intamin. Then yes.