Review & Giveaway: Bic Easy Glide Ballpoint Ink System

"Feel The Smoothness!"

That is the branding behind Bic's new Easy Glide ballpoint ink, which is now found in some of their more popular pens lines.  Bic sent me free samples of these pens a few months back, and I finally got around to getting my smoothness on last week.

So, are these pens up to 35% smoother compared to other Bic offereings?  I thought they were more like 38% smoother, but who am I to pick nits.  In all honesty, these updated pens from Bic did a very nice job, and yes, they were smooth writers for the most part.

Out of the samples I received from Bic - the Velocity, the Atlantis, and the eco-friendly ReAction - I was sure I was going to like the Atlantis the best, but once pen hit the paper, the Velocity was the one for me.  The Atlantis has the sleekest barrel and a nice rubber grip, but for some reason it didn't write near as well as the other two.  It wasn't as clean and skipped a little more.  The Velocity on the other hand was really nice.  The wider barrel and formed rubber grip turned out to be really excellent, and it was a super smooth writer on the page (the written part of the review is with the Velocity).  While I liked the blue ink of the ReAction, I couldn't get past the slick plastic barrel, but I imagine that is all a part of making it a more eco-friendly pen.

Overall, the Easy Glide pens are not a bad effort from Bic.  It is nice to see them upgrade some of their technology, making a better writing experience for all.

Thanks again to the folks at Bic for providing these pens for review!

And now, for the giveaway portion of the post...

Bic was kind enough to include plenty of extras in their package, so I have several pens left over to give out.  What I will do is pick three winners randomly from the comments section and send out a sample of each of these pens to you.  Sound good?  Lets make it official:

1. Leave one comment on this post anytime between now, and Thursday night at 11:59 PM Eastern Time.  You are limited to one entry.  Feel free to link this giveaway on your blog, or share it with anyone you feel is a true pen addict.  If you have a blog, I would love a link back, but it is certainly not required for entry into the contest.

2. For this contest, I will pick three winners at random from the comments section of this post.  The comments will be numbered in the order they are received, i.e. the first comment is #1, the second #2, and so on.  The Random Integer Generator at random.org will be used to pick the number of the winners.

3. The contest winners will be posted on Friday, November 5th.  The winners will have one week to email me at the address posted in the right sidebar.

4. I will ship internationally.  I know there are many international readers and fans of The Pen Addict, and I will gladly ship to you at my expense.

Thanks and good luck!

Review: Bic Clic Ballpoint

Ever since starting this blog I have been asked by emailers and commenters to review some of the most common pens around - the standard Bic's, PaperMate's and things of that nature.  That has been hard for me because I really don't use those pens (which is one of the main reasons I started this blog).  I keep meaing to break down and buy some of the very basic pens found in desk drawers, store counters, and the like, but I just never get around to it.  It took me forever to realize I had one of the classic pens sitting right here the entire time in the Bic Clic.

I'm not sure when the Bic Clic was first introduced, but anyone who has ever written a word in thier life has surely used one of these at some point in time.  This pen is as common as the day is long.  It has been years and years since I have put one to paper, but it is really not a bad pen.  The only reason I have this one is that it was a freebie in an old Field Notes order, and that is pretty much what the Clic has been relegated to these days - a promotional pen workhorse.  Need a logo pen?  Well the Clic, along with the Stic, are the kings of that arena.  I imagine most people don't even use a non-promo version of this pen.

On the performance front it is not bad at all, like I mentioned before.  The 1.0mm ballpoint is very smooth, and the black looks nice on the page and is much cleaner than I remember a Bic ever being.  That is pretty good for, well, free.

Click here for the XL review.

Review: Bic 4-Color Fashion Colors Multi Pen

Since Brian reviewed this one yesterday at Office Supply Geek, I figured today is as good as any to break out my review of the Bic 4-Color Fashion Colors Multi Pen as well.  I came to the same general conclusion that Brian did - this is a good update to an old classic - but I did notice one small difference between his pen and mine: Where is my lanyard hole!

That obviously isn't too big of a deal for me, but I do find it odd that there are two different models of this pen.  From a writing perspective, it is decent by traditional ballpoint standards.  There isn't much ink buildup around the tip, and the lines are generally clean.  The pink and purple inks are far superior to the lime green and turquoise though.  The turquoise had its share of streaking, while the lime green is too light of a shade.  The pink and purple are nice and solid.

One issue I had with this pen is that the plungers were very hard to push down, and they didn't loosen up over time either.  Instead of just a quick flick of the thumb to push one down, it actually took some force to eject the cartridge.

With back to school season in full swing, I expect these will be a big hit with the kids.  After all, I am just a big kid myself, and really had fun with this pen.

Click here for the XL review.