I am fond of writing with my Mont Blanc Meisterstuck rollerball however my fear of it coming to harm prevents it from leaving my desk at home. So the idea occurred to me to attempt to replace my Pilot G2 Limited's internal refill with a Mont Blanc refill.
The process of changing out the refill was disappointingly simple. In fact further study revealed many fine pen refills would fit my G2 Limited body with little modification(Mont Blanc rollerballs and ball points) or no modification(Pelikan rollerballs). In the case of the Mont Blanc rollerball it is only necessary to remove a small portion of the plastic nub at the far end of the refill. The shoulder of the pen will fit into the pilot with no changes.
I started writing with my Mont Blanc modified pilot at the office and after some time I began to notice difficulty in discerning between my modified pen and my conventional G2. Curiosity struck and I decided to conduct an ad hoc survey to see if the occupants of my office could tell a difference between the modified and conventional G2.
Fifteen people were presented with a silver G2 Limited which contained a Mont Blanc rollerball refill as well as an unmodified coal gray G2 Limited. Each was simply asked which they would prefer to write with and why. Eight preferred the conventional G2 with the balance more favorable to the modified pen. Of especial interest was the language used to describe individual preferences. Regardless of which pen was preferred it was described as smoother than the other.
Line preference was evenly distributed between the G2's thicker line and the Mont Banc's thinner line. To be technically accurate here I must comment that these pens both produce lines of a around 16 thousandths of an inch. The G2's line appears thicker because it is darker due to its greater ink deposition rate.
Of additional interest were comments made of each pen's weight. Several users immediately noted the greater weight of the modified pen doing so instantly upon lifting the second pen without going back to the first for comparison. The normal G2 has a mass of 24.6 grams while the modified pen comes in at 27.4 grams. While this makes the modified pen 10% heavier than its counterpart I was still impressed with the ability of an individual to detect a 2.8 gram difference in mass with such speed.
Presently I find myself alternating between them based on task. When taking swift notes I make use of the G2 while reserving the Mont Blanc for slower tasks.
