5 Common Complaints Against B&M That Don’t Make Sense

With the opening of Banshee at Kings Island this year and the launch of Fury 325 at Carowinds and Thunderbird at Holiday World next year, Bolliger & Mabillard (B&M) has shown they are at the top of their game and still the premier roller coaster manufacturer. They’ve expanded their product offering and their impressive portfolio now includes giga, family, and launch coasters. Still, many roller coaster enthusiasts are not fans of B&M, which is fine, but it’s their reasoning about why they don’t like them that I don’t understand. Here are my arguments against five common coaster enthusiast complaints about B&M:

B&M Common Complaint #1: They’re too loud

One well known feature of a B&M coaster is the “B&M roar”, a distinctive sound some people like while others complain is too loud. At Universal Orlando, you can hear the Incredible Hulk’s roar all the way from INSIDE the Royal Pacific Hotel. What is the B&M roar? When a train  with a certain type of wheel rolls down the rails of B&M’s unique box-like track, it creates an unforgettable roaring sound unique to this style of track design. The most efficient way to reduce the noise is to fill the  hollow spine and rails of the track and columns with very fine sand, pea gravel, or foam. This decision is up to the theme park the ride is being installed at, not B&M. Sometimes there are noise restrictions and the park has to keep it as quiet as possible. Filling the track adds weight to the structure that must be accounted for during the design process. It’s a solvable problem that is up to the park to decide. The screams of the riders are often as loud as the coaster itself.

Bolliger & Mabillard (B&M) Incredible Hulk at Islands of Adventure

B&M Common Complaint #2: They don’t innovate

Another complaint heard in enthusiast circles is B&M never innovates or invents anything new. Have we forgotten they created the world’s first inverted , floorless, and dive  coasters? B&M are also ahead of everyone else in restraint design. They’ve perfected the lapbar restraint as seen on their hyper coasters and recently perfected the OTSR, as I stated in our Banshee review. B&M may innovate at a slower pace but their safety record is still perfect.

 Bolliger & Mabillard (B&M) Banshee at Kings Island

B&M Complaint #3: They’re force-less or they lack force

 “B&Ms are forceless” is a phrase you’ll see on coaster boy forums all over the internet. Saying a B&M coaster, or any coaster for that matter, “lacks force” makes zero sense. Even kiddie coasters exert force on the passeners.  Have you ever ridden a B&M hyper coaster, like Diamondback? You float the entire way over the third hill of Diamondback. And if you think Banshee is forceless or is not intense, maybe you should just skip roller coasters altogether and become a fighter pilot or astronaut. You can argue B&M coasters are less intense than other rides but calling them forceless is just plain silly.

 

B&M Common Complaint #4: They’re generic, all the same 

I also don’t get the complaints that all B&Ms are the same.  You can argue almost ALL roller coasters are the same! They’re all limited by the same constraints: physics, safety standards, and cash. There’s only so much you can do. A 600 foot tall roller coaster will feel the same as a 200 foot because the forces on the rider have to be kept at the same limit. B&M are throwing in new maneuvers all the time. They’ve just recently built their first invert coasters without a pre-drop dip. Banshee has a new type of inversion for an invert. There’s a crazy new inversion on the flying coaster, Sky Scraper. They offer not one or two, but three  different sizes of dive coaster trains with the additional option of being floorless or not.

Bolliger & Mabillard B&M Thunderbird at Holiday World

B&M Common Complaint #5: They never take risks

The last big complaint against B&M is they never take risks. Wasn’t it a risk to design a wing coaster? Intamin built one in 2007 and  didn’t build another one (until recently). Why? Maybe there wasn’t a market for it?  They updated their inverted coaster car design for Banshee, even though the prospect of selling more isn’t good, as most parks that can afford an invert already have one. Isn’t taking on a project the size of a giga coaster a risk? Or having to design five  major roller coasters in one year risky? Or designing trains for a ride you didn’t design or build?

Bolliger & Mabillard Fury 325 at Carowinds

Fun Fact: Bolliger & Mabillard is located in the French speaking part of Switzerland

With B&M’s expanded product offering, recent successes, and future projects, they’ve shown they’re on top of the coaster world and will only keep getting better. Do you agree with my thoughts?

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