Intamin or Bolliger and Mabillard

[Iron Wolf 90-11]

Tell which of the two make better roller coasters and the best one that they've made.

[tribar]

It's hard to say. B&M makes smoother coasters but some (RB, S:UF) arn't all that exciting. Intamin makes great coasters but some of them can get a little rough (Maverick)

As for favorites-
Intamin- Skyrush
B&M- X Flight

[Coaster Justin]

B&M Personally as they don't require pointless seatbelts and most recent coasters have Big-boy seats


Intamin- Bizarro @ SFNE
B&M- Goliath @ SFOG

[Stoogie]

I have to say B&M on the newer coasters. I'm a big X-Flight Fan. Don't get me wrong though. I do like the older coasters.

[Luxornv]

Now it is definitely B&M. A few years ago, it would all depend on what you are looking for. If you want a smooth and reliable ride, then B&M is the clear answer. But if you want something that pushes the limits of possibility and new concepts that haven't been done before, then Intamin would have been the answer. Neither company has done anything really ground breaking in new ride technology recently, at least nothing obvious. I liked Intamin in the early 2000s because of their new concepts. They had some decent success with this, but we all know their reliability record on that kind of thing. It seems that model of pushing the envelope has cost them quite a bit in recent years. Gone are the days of parks (really only Cedar Point and Magic Mountain) competing for the tallest and fastest ride around. Executives know these things cost a lot more money than something like X-Flight. X-Flight looks amazing and riders like it. There might be some more initial hype on something tall or fast, but soon it fades into mediocrity in the eyes of the GP and it's value drops to the same as anything else in the park. For this reason, B&M has taken the lead since they appear to have the more reliable product. Parks now want something that looks cool and will always work, and that's what B&M gives. Intamin can probably do the same thing, they just don't have any flagship examples.

I'll always go with Intamin though, they built my favorite coaster, Top Thrill Dragster.

[Ilovthevu']

For the most part, B&Ms are more reliable. The Flying Coasters though are not as reliable as the rest of the B&Ms. You will barely see many B&Ms down during a visit to a park. Also, there are way more accidents happening on Intamin's than B&Ms. Does B&M have any accidents whatsoever? If I were a park / chain CEO, I would never buy an Intamin coaster. You are asking for trouble. Cedar Fair more recently bought TWO Intamin coasters as they love Intamin and they had to redo the rides. Maverick there was too many G's on an inversion, and they also had to redo Intimidator at Kings Dominion. This is not to mention the problems Cedar Point had with the Intamin simple "log ride" even though it's not a log ride.

As for ride experience, sure I like some of Intamin's rides such as V2, Superman Ride of Steel, Bobsled coasters, Top Thrill Dragster, and California Screamin is okay, but I like more B&Ms such as Batman, Raptor, Hydra, Dueling Dragons, Dominator, Mantis, Riddler's Revenge, Superman Ultimate Flight, Incredible Hulk, Kumba, Scream, etc.

Favorite B&M: Batman the Ride
Worst B&M: It's between Talon & Dueling Dragons Fire
B&M I would want to ride (that I haven't yet): Behemoth, but it's not like oh I have to really, really get to Canada tomorrow. It would be neat to ride, but it doesn't seem that special. It's just a ride out of B&Ms that I haven't ridden that would be cool to ride.

Favorite Intamin: La Vibora
Worst Intamin: Superman the Escape
Intamin I would want to ride (that I haven't yet): Volcano

[Muck Finnesota]

My answer to this question might be closer than it was in the past, but I would still probably give the nod to B&M. The reason is that Intamin builds one coaster type that I enjoy while B&M has several- even if it has been years that they've built anything of worth for some of those types. Maybe if Intamin's sitdown loopers or inverters (wng coasters too) weren't only on different continents.

[monsterfan99]

B&M by a mile. I'll take any of the inverts or hypers over Millennium Forceless or top thrill.

[Jerrykoala2112]

I like and don't like rides by both manufacturers. I do like B&M's high capacity coasters, but many of their rides tend to be a bit dull. I do like Intamin's crazy layouts that drive you insane, but I don't like it when I visit a park and the Intamin ride is closed. It's just a case by case scenario.

Out of 37 B&M's that I've been on... My favorites are Dueling Dragons, Great Bear, Doninator, Alpengeist, Griffon, Goliath @ SFOG, Wildfire, and Manta.
Out of the 24 Intamin's that I've been on... My favorites are American Eagle, Vertical Velocity, Bizarro @ SFNE, Kanonen, Maverick, Millennium Force, Storm Runner, El Toro, and Volcano.

That's nearly the same amount of rides from each manufacturer. But to really see which I prefer, I just loo at my Top 20. And as more than half of them are Intamin, and B&M only has 2 rides in my Top 20, I think it's clear that I prefer Intamin coasters.

[CoasterDude12-2]

B&M's are more reliable, comfortable, and smoother, than their Intamin counterparts, but they can be a bit dull. After riding Raging Bull for so many years I can fall asleep after that first drop. Though their more recent hypers are the exact opposite of that. I think a great park has a couple of coasters by both designers. I'd take B&M over Intamin, but they both have their place in my heart.

[Paradise]

B&M = Montu
Intamin = Millenium Force

Gotta give the nod to B&M as a whole though. Simply because of the pointless restraints and reliability on Intamin coasters.

[BLADE]

I say Intamin. B&M's are better out of the box, safer, and more reliable, but Intamin has way more variety and seem to age better.
Intamin builds launched coasters, wood coasters, flats, towers, and water rides that B&M does not. They will develop new technology for a park. They have more styles of trains. I feel B&M tells a park, this is what we have, deal with it.

[UWW-10]

B&M- the "perfectionist"....they will get it right the first time everytime, because they won't do something unless they know it has proven to work before. Anything B&M has developed has taken them years of research and development before they were confident enough to put a bid on the market.

Intamin-the "risk taker"....they will do something on a whim and sometimes it works; sometimes it doesn't. Intamin always reminds me of the person in the buffet line who always puts more on their plate than they can eat. Trying to push the envelope sounds great in theory but sometimes too much is not a good thing.

I'm with team B&M....while their product line isn't "massive"; what they do have they get right. I feel they won't bid on a project unless they can gaurantee the client will get exactly what they want and they are able to successfully pursure the project.

[Falcon]

^ I totally agree with your definitions of both companies. Except I prefer intamin's uniqueness and willingness to take risk over B&Ms proven concepts.