Question about Surefire plastic tailcap lanyard loop rings.

[Espionage Studio]

I can only assume this topic has been brought up in the past although I poked around a bit I came up short. My Surefire LX2, A2 Aviator, L2 and L1 etc. of various gens have the black plastic ring for the lanyard around the tailcap. Recently in my hunt for a gen 1 L1 I have noticed that they typically are missing this plastic ring. Can someone explain what the deal is with this, did Surefire include it in the box or did some of the early models simply not come with the plastic ring installed or included at all?

 

[Daniel_sk]

AFAIK some people just prefer to remove it - it can be removed with some care. You can then replace it with an o-ring or a lanyard knot. The plastic ring is designed to break into two parts under enough force, this is a safety measure so that your hand doesn't get pulled along with the flashlight in emergency.

 

[Espionage Studio]

Daniel_sk, I appreciate the reply. My question is though, did the lights ship 100% of the time with that ring installed or did some early gen L1 ship without the ring? For instance if I go on eBay, the ones I see that are gen 1 (smooth bezel) none of them have the ring and they all appear to have the front bezel ring not screwed down all the way which I've always found odd...

 

[archimedes]

With vintage SureFire parts variants, nothing was ever " 100% " a certain way, lol

 

[Owen]

My knee jerk reaction was that I've never seen a new L1 without it, but my memory also sucks, and I googled this:
http://flashlightguide.com/2013/10/fact-sheet-surefire-l1-lumamax/
Hard to imagine they would ship without the ring after putting that big groove there, but those images are "courtesy of Surefire, LLC", so...
Notice the text stating that it was "available in all generations" under the ordering options, and "included" under accessories at the bottom. Maybe some just came with the Z60 kit, but not installed.

I wasn't willing to pay L1 money 'til gen6.
Look at those outputs on the earlier ones!:candle:
You've come a long way, baby...

 

[Daniel_sk]

I think that's a good theory - maybe the first generations didn't come with the lanyard ring installed and it was included in the package. Here is a picture of 1st gen box and the ring is not installed:

 

[altermann]

That ring was in plastic bag with paracord stored in square part of the paper insert, under the text, and nothing wrong with the bezel it screwed tight, it's just design

 

[Espionage Studio]

Altermann, I can assume you know what you are talking about after perusing some of your collection on FB...nice stuff! I still tend to believe that some of the early L1 versions either did or did not come with the attachments in the box, I have rarely seen gen 1 smooth bezel with the ring on the back. At some point they definitely started selling them completely assembled (I have what I think is a gen 2, square body, tapered bezel but with scallops and the plastic ring is installed.