B&M vs Intamin

[CGM]

For me it has to be B&M, their coasters are just consistantly good, even some of the "new skool" B&Ms. Their rides are always smooth, reliable and with the exeption of the standups, comfortable. they also age brilliantly being as smooth ten years on as they were from the day of opening.

 

Intamin have built some great coasters but not all of their rides are up to that standard. They have built some truly terrible coasters. Then there's reliablbility, many of their rides have epic downtime years into their operation and they don't age all that well. Some of their coasters have started to become rough within months.

 

Many may not think that how a coaster looks is important but Intamin coasters can look very ugly, the most notable examples being Tornado and Volcano. B&Ms on the other hand always look fluid and graceful and I would never describe any of their coasters as ugly

[deano]

Intamin all the way, i like every B&M ive ridden, but i LOVE every Intamin ive ridden.

[coasterJunkie94]

mmmmmh B&M

I Love the Cars There so Comfy Like a Lazy Boy!

[jten11]

I live in a state FULL of B&M's....never rode on an Intamin before, therefore I can't say what is better. I know one thing. When I ride on a B&M I never have to worry about rough parts ,headbanging, or a coaster malfunctioning....B&M is what you considered thrilling with 'safety' in mind...gotta love em .

[coastermaniac1]

Well B&M's I have been on are: Dragon Khan, Superman (Madrid), Batman: La Fuga, AIR, Nemesis and Oblivion.

 

I really liked them all except for AIR. It was alright and only average.

 

Intamin's I have been on are Tornado (Parque Atracciones), Rita and Furius Baco.

 

Furius Baco was brilliant but the other 2 were good but not great. And Nemesis and Batman are miles better Yornado.

 

So B&M.

[Worra315]

I live in a state FULL of B&M's....never rode on an Intamin before, therefore I can't say what is better. I know one thing. When I ride on a B&M I never have to worry about rough parts ,headbanging, or a coaster malfunctioning....B&M is what you considered thrilling with 'safety' in mind...gotta love em .

 

As soon as you said a state FULL of B&M's I knew you were talking about FL. I'm in the same boat as you are. In FL all of the big coasters are B&M, but back to the topic.

 

I've never ridden an Intamin, but they do have an advantage over B&M, They're willing to do new types of things. Don't get me wrong B&M does too, just not to the level of Intamin.

But since I love everything about B&M, the track, the trains, the sounds, ect. I'm gonna have to go with them.

 

Ed "B&M Fanboy" Bagley Jr.

[gk]

Intamins: TTD, Kingda Ka, S:ROS SFNE, El Toro

B&Ms: Raptor, Georgia Scorcher, B:TR @ GADv, B:TR @ SFOG, Nitro, Medusa, Batman Dark Knight

 

Hopefully I'll add a couple more of each this year.

 

I think both companies have been pretty innovative - Intamin with rethinking the woodie, the rocket coasters and aquatrax, and B&M with the floorless, inverts and dive machines.

 

What it comes down to for me are the trains and the restraints. B&M tends to have the most comfortable restraints, IMO (compare Nitro vs. S:ROS - no contest with your legs free on Nitro vs. legs rendered practically immobile on S:ROS). However I prefer 2-across seating by a large margin, so I have to give the nod to Intamin there.

 

I think Intamin may be making a comeback of sorts with their new OTSRs. The ones on Kinga Ka are quite nice, but I'll have to try them on a ride that has some lateral forces on before I proclaim them great.

 

 

Heck, I guess I have to give them a tie. We should all just be thankfull that we have these two companies designing the majority of major ride installations these days instead of Arr(ow!)

[Goliath513]

Im going with B&M because of the coasters I've ridden, B&Ms have given me a more enjoyable ride. Also, B&M rides have less downtime than the average Intamin.

[doublex98]

B&M = very cozy and comfty cars...

[PKI Jizzman]

My number 1,2, and 3 coasters are Intamin and B&M.

 

My Best Intamin: Millennium Force

Best Intamin Flats: Demon Drop and Drop Zone

 

Best B&M - Top Gun: The Jet Coaster

[asr]

I've ridden 5 Intamins (Millennium Force, Wicked Twister, TTD, S:ROS SFNE, and Disaster Transport), and 7 B&Ms (B:TDK, Nitro, Medusa, S:UF, B:TR, Raptor, and Mantis), and I have to say Intamin, but thats probably because I haven't ridden any truly great B&Ms (And don't say Nitro, I personally don't think it deserves it's spot on the Mitch Hawker poll, it's all boring floater and no ejector, making t pretty much worthless to me).

[Spokker]

I'm pretty much sick of forces and being banged around on roller coasters so my vote goes to B&M and their smooth, quiet sand-filled designs.

[ghost007jas]

As you may have seen my two favorite coasters are Intamin, but I prefer B&M.

 

I prefer the trains and restraints on B&M's, I love the speed of Intamins but I am a huge fan of inversions and even after riding Maverick I would give the award to B&M. Plus the downtime on most good Intamins is unbearable. I can not even count the times Maverick and Millennium Force were broken down during the three days I was at Cedar Point. Where as I have never had a problem with down time for B&M's.

 

So I prefer B&M over Intamin anyday.

 

ghost "could be described as a B&M fanboy" 007jas

[bulldogmom]

I voted for Intamin because of MF, Maverick, and Disaster Transport. Also the drop rides. I'm not that crazy about Raptor, Mantis, or Kumba- Batman is okay.

Other than that, many of my fav coasters have been Arrows (hi Jahan) Magnum, Drachen Fire, Voretx at Canada's Wonderland, Big Bad Wolf, Loch Ness Monster, Gemini.

[adc9787]

I have only ridden one Intamin... Stormrunner. However, I thought that the ride was really amazing. One thing about B&M rides is that I can sit on them and actually be bored. That forces on some are strong, but since they all (except Hulk) use the same go up, go down, inversions or hills, pattern... it can be boring.

 

Intamin, to me, at least trys new things and up the thrill factor all the time. Personally, I love launching coasters... and Intamin seems to do that the best.

 

It is really hard to compare the two companies as their product line is very different. Overall, I would have to say Intamin!

 

-Andrew

[GriffyTiffy]

I bet everyone knows what I picked, but I still wiil tell you why. The restrants, the roar, and The amazing smoothness!! Sure, the have made A few duds, but there is very few of them (Mantis and Iron Wolf )

[ginzo]

I love B&M inverts and hypers, but I give the edge to Intamin because their rides are a little bit edgier; give more forces, etc. Like the launch on Xcelerator, or the ejector airtime on El Toro. B&M would never take the intensity that high.

[PKI Jizzman]

B&M:

Top Gun:TJC

Raptor

Vortex (Caro)

Mantis

 

Intamin:

Maverick

Mil.F

TTD

Wicked Twister

 

I love all rides above. But Intamin takes the cake for adding the awesomeness that are...DROP RIDES!

[sam06pr]

I love B&M inverts and hypers, but I give the edge to Intamin because their rides are a little bit edgier; give more forces, etc. Like the launch on Xcelerator, or the ejector airtime on El Toro. B&M would never take the intensity that high.

It seems as if B&M has been forgetting about the intensity. Could it be that they want to be so smooth that they have to eliminate strong forces to do that? I dunno

I voted for B&M because they have different styles of rides. But the layouts found on Inverts, floorless, and sitdowns have to change. They need something different a new.

Intamin coasters are great. But they do not have a lot of variety. I really love El Toro, S:ROS (SFNE), and their Impulse Inverts, a few more coasters like that and I can change my mind. I really want to try out Maverick!

[TexTitan01]

I like B&M because it is very traditionalist; none of this 400ft launch nonsense (not that I dont love TTD/KK, Im just tryin to make a point). B&M has used one formula and stuck with it through thick and thin: they only build coasters with lift hills, and they only build steel coasters. They've only ever done launched coasters once. That makes me believe that in spite of all the new launched coasters that are coming out from Gertsl and Maurer and all them others, B&M will still stick to original coaster roots and keep its same formula.

 

The fact that they built Griffon and Raptor and all them others are amazing had no affect in my choice

[IceDragon]

This is quite tough...

 

B&M have released some super rollercoaster recently. I've had plenty of forces, inversions and plenty of airtime on the ride, enjoying every second of each ride 9except for the Nemesis one where I was dehydrated. Not pleasant)

 

I have to admit, I haven't been on many Intamins, but those that I have ridden (Stealth and Colossus) I have found both intense, yet fun. Colossus and the heavy restraints have always made the ride that much better (yeah, I do like being crushed for some reason ^_^)

 

B&M win, they don't get as rough as quick as Intamin.

[Guest]

Most Intamin coasters tend to be more fun to ride for me: but their chronic breakdowns, crashes, and ejecting people out of rides gets old/frustrating after awhile. B&M hasnt really been wowing me lately (the coasters they made in the early to mid 90s their best IMO except for Goliath at SFOG) but at least they are designed with good capacity and engineering in mind so no question i'll go with B&M.

[Moose]

C. Arrow.

 

They may be considered rough now, but we are where we are today with rides because of Arrow.

[ginzo]

^Were they any more important than Schwarzkopf? Heck, I don't think so. There isn't a doubt in the world who had superior engineering.

 

Stengel v. Toomer

 

Toomer wouldn't even ride his own creations.

 

Arrow's biggest legacy is the prevalence of OTSRs on steel coasters, which is hardly something to be proud of.

[texcoaster]

If this poll had been taken several years ago, I'd have said B&M, no contest. I'd have pointed out that while Intamin was churning out a lot of the same stuff with different layouts, B&M was busy giving us new things: a dive machine, a flying coaster, stand-up designs, etc etc etc.

 

Now, it's exactly the opposite: B&M has gotten stale. It seems that they've perfected a set of inversions, helices, and speed hills, and now they're just plugging them together like someone who relies on Elementary too much when making a ride in No Limits.

 

Intamin, on the other hand, is cranking out stuff like Kingda Ka, Maverick, El Toro, designing radical forces into their rides, pushing the envelope.

 

Ask yourself this: when you hear that a new B&M is getting installed somewhere, do you REALLY get geeked up on it, or do you take a look at the layout and think "Ok, more of the same"? (cough, Led Zeppelin, cough)

 

As much as I love B&M rides, I gotta say that I haven't seen anything from them in awhile that has made me alter my vacation plans just to go ride it.

 

Intamin wins (as of Dec 07, anyway)