Believe it or not, those Bics are among the awful pens I've used on occasion, though they are definitely outsucked by most of the Chinesium novelty pens or dollar store pens (Looking at you, INC!) Most rollerballs and such by recognizable brands tend to outwrite the infamous BIC. That said, I have enjoyed drawing with my "Fight For Your Write" multicolor pack of Crystals that I got that time. Probably won't get more, though, as I actually prefer my brush pens.

I kept the supply flowing, and over time I've had to replace them much less often.  All the regulars have got one by now, I guess.

As I noted in another thread… It works just fine in a Parker Jotter XL, and I like it even better in my Pelikan K74 Form.

Data splits for the paper: Franck Dernoncourt*, Ji Young Lee*, "Optimizing Neural Network Hyperparameters with Gaussian Processes for Dialog Act Classification". 2016 IEEE Workshop on Spoken Language Technology. (* indicates equal contribution)

For those who haven't tried these, I find them the best writing ballpoints that I've ever used.  They always work, they write on the worst paper, they write smoothly and produce a dark, consistent line.

There are three desks in the lobby of the post office here in my little town, where people can pause to sort through their mail, address envelopes, fill out forms, etc.  I noticed that sometimes there were ballpoints of various sorts at these desks.  Some of them might have been left there by the staff, others by patrons (accidentally or not).  They were various types, various shades of awful.  So, I decided to try an experiment.

I wonder why so many ballpoint pens, and ballpoint refills, are so wretched when Bic can make something this cheap that writes this well?  If I can find a Parker-style refill that does actually write like this 1.6mm Cristal, I'll jump on that.

To each his own, I guess.  I have been collecting pens for over 40 years and still find the BIC crystal, blue or black ink,  to be the best writing ballpoint in the world.  It’s amazing how well and reliably they write while being so inexpensive.  That being said, while the blue and black ink ones are easily the best, the red and green inks are washed out and disappointing.

I've been using a Bic Grip which has a 1.2 mm line. Smoother than the Bic Stic. I shall have to try these to see how much better they are.

Great ballpoints. I use a BiC 1.6 as a backup to whichever fountain pen I have carried. Sometimes I need something to write on paper that is only a little better than newsprint. BiC also makes a retractable 1.6mm pen, called "Velocity", I think. Feels the same.