I stick with the Zebra F-401 series, mainly since I destroy the Pilot G2 points before 1/2 the ink supply is out (happens with EVERY RB i use)

Sarasa gel. if i must use any at all. G2 is comparable.

Zebra F-301
Nice little pen
J

I keep a bunch of G2s on hand, black and blue gel 0.7s and mechanical pencils.

Hi,

The Sakura Gelly roll should do. Mine is purple with glitter, and I use it only for addressing envelopes because of its cost.

Dillon

For "true," oily ballpoint, PaperMate.

For rollerball, Sanford Uniball Vision (bulletproof, high-contrast, fast-drying ink; naming the pen after its large, visible ink reservoir was a great idea).

For gel, NOTHING ANYMORE (horribly overpriced; most of the gel pens and refills I ever used got bubbles into the ink supply from the tip, which instantly sabotaged the supply, wasting my money even quicker).

Uni-Ball Signo 207... I found this gem after pulling my hair out w/ the Pilot G2 (skipping). Smoof!

This ink is bulletproof a la Noodler's Black.

Dr. Grip. I have been carrying around the same disposible Dr. Grip for over two years. I don't dispose of it, just keep replacing the gel refills. It's easy to throw into my backpack or briefcase and I don't have to worry about scuffing it up or losing it.

Uniball Power-Tank in blue. Very smooth and they last a long time.

Larry

Same as Chainwhip. Uni-ball Signo 207's. Better than the G-2's.

I like these so much, that I've actually started using the inserts from these pens in my Parker Sonnet RB's. It's not a perfect fit, (you need to add some sort of a spacer to the barrel of the Parker before inserting the rollerball refill,) but it's a lot better than the original Parker rollerball refills.

TMann

Oh, so many! I'm not a fountain pen exclusive person yet.

I love uni-ball Signo .38mm & .5mm (the ones from Japan, not the sucky US ones).

I love two ballpoint pens:
1. The classic BIC M10 retractable. This pen was introduced in 1956!!! and is still in production in Europe and New Zealand. It can be bought almost anywhere in the world, with the exception of the USA. In my flying days, I found the M10 to be the preferred pen by military pilots in the most disparate corners of the world, from Sweden to Venezuela.
2.Smooth and ergonomically perfect: the Ballograf Epoca of Sweden. Introduced in the 1960s, the Epoca is still going strong. Ballograf is now owned by BIC, but their pens retain a high level of quality for a very affordable price.
3. Rollerball: any Borghini Ink-O-Sphere. Borghini invented the refillable rollerball pen (using international size fountain pen cartridges or a converter) and their pens ar still the best. MOst companies producing fountain pen-ink roller balls pay Borghini a licensing fee. Pelikan did not do so and was sued by Borghini. I think in the end an out of court settlement was reached.

i don't know what other possible refills these take but there's Dr. Grip gel which is the same as the G2. So you only have to dispose of the empty refill, not the whole pen.

Sarasa is still my favorite because of the colors - they have a wonderful burgundy gel that is very close to PR Burgundy Mist and a "forest green" that has a slight greyish tint to it that reminds of the now-discontinued Pelikan Moss green.

We have BIC Intensity gels at work, they work well. -Bruce

Uni-ball Vision Elites in bold point is not bad. Not as smooth as the Parker gel refills but the pen is airplane proof and it's waterproof.

My strategy is to find a fat pen that takes the Parker gel. I am gonna check out the Fatboy silencer. From pics it doesn't look like the Fatboy is a pretty pen, but if it feels good holding it then I'll overlook the looks of the pen. I think the silencer looks the best in the Fatboy line, either the Fatboy in copper or billet aluminum.

I use Sakura gelly roll. The metallics are my favorite! :bunny1:

I'm a Zebra fan because they're pretty tough and surivive being thrown in a pocket with keys, etc. (i'm not subjecting ANY FP to that) G2s skip like nuts after a while and I kill the RB on Uniballs (hopefully my current 207 survives)

I'm using a Pelikan Big Touch backed with a Parker Gel refill which is ironically cheaper than the BP refill (the gels are 2 for $3 while the BPs are $4 each)

Pilot Precise V5 and V7s... especially when I dump out the ink and put FP ink in!

My favorite non FP pen is the Cross Ion. These little bullets rock. I always carry it with me. I do that for two reasons. The first is that I don't let anyone write with my FP. The second is that I can't stand not having a pen on me. I pretty much always have three things in my pockets at all times.....a pen (the Ion), business cards and a Buck knife pocket knife. (Money is optional...depending on the wife and kids )

The Ion fits easily into my slacks, jeans or shorts, has a variety of ink colors and it feels great to write with. For a $20 pen I don't think you can go wrong.

For a ball point I like the papermate

for my other pen which I really like is a Pilot Uniball "vision elite"
because it takes minimal pressure to write and has ink like a FP

I only use ballpoints at work, so I use what they provide. If it is free and it writes I am happy. Hopefully I will never have to actually buy a ballpoint pen.

Hi, Where did you buy the Pelikan Big Touch? Sounds like a fat BP that I might be interested in. :-)

Hi, was it messy to put FP ink in the V7? Hmm, if it's easy and clean to do maybe I will give it a try. :-)

I love the Pilot G-2 retractibles - especially the 0.05 extra fine. The retractible click is much more satisfying to me than either the Unibal Signo or the Zebra - both have much "weaker" clicks, to me anyway. The G-2's come in black/blue/red/green/purple. The 0.07 recently came out in pink/turqoise/burgundy (really looks brownish to me, though), but the refills aren't available... Just the pens themselves. I wrote Pilot a pleading letter to make 0.05 versions in these colors, but they said they had no plans to do so in the forseeable forture... Alas. (and yeah, these are the same things hiding in the Dr. Grip Gel Pens, as KCat said...).

I can't figure out how NOT to kill my RB points. I got the big touch at FPH for $5.

This is interesting....how do you know it was bubbles? I ask because I really like the Parker gel refills but I've had lots of them go bad way before the ink supply was used up and I've often wondered what happened.

I am apt to address envelopes with a Sakura Gelly Roll, since it's waterproof.

In general, though, my preferred disposable writing instrument is the woodcase pencil, my preference therin being the Paper-Mate Mirado. Paper-Mate BPs aren't as bad as some, either, but in general I don't use ballpoints (rather, I carry a Parker 51 for receipts and stuff).

Yep, you got sabotaged by air bubbles. I saw bubbles in my see-through Pilot G2 retractable gel pens (both the body and the refill tube are see-through). They happened in all four colors of ink (black, red, blue and green). The bubbles always started at the writing end of the supply tube, went gradually up the tube and stopped moving about a third of the way up. The pens continued to write after a bubble started, but faintly and unevenly because the air bubble had to be fed through the writing point.

I loved the ink, so I foolishly bought black refills. Whenever I scrupulously kept the pens point-downward at all times, bubbles either didn't happen or happened later in the life of the supply. Getting tired of having to concentrate so often on the condition of my pens all day long, and getting tired of the refill expense, were two triggers of my happy memory of using a fountain pen during a year of college in China 9 .

Since this topic came back up, here's a good review on some ballpoint/RB pens:

http://www.journalisimo.com/

Did you buy a spacer so that the 207 can fit? I wonder if it's possible to buy a spacer so that a Uni-ball signo 207 refill can fit a Parker BP?? i remember fisher space pen refills would include a plastic spacer so that it can be used as a Parker BP or gel refill.

Mine just die skipping, no bubbles