i found a coouple of tine cracks in the head lugs , after farther inspection i decided to repair the cracks with a bit of brazing , i drilled holes at the end of the cracks to stop any spreading and it was then i discovered the lugs were poorly brazed , virtually no filling at the miters , i pumped in some some flux paste with a syringe through the relief holes and then heated it up and flowed in some 34% silver bronze rod using the torch to pull the filler through until it was visible at all joints and had emerged out the cracks too  , 

while i was at it i added some new gear lever bosses ( i hate band on items ) might be nice, then i decided that a brazed on cable stop would be nice to go along with the brazed on dia compe center pull bosses , then i thought i may as well add a couple of bottle bosses along with threaded inserts in the stay bridges . still lots of cleaning up before i prime it and take it on a test ride to check my questionable brazing before i commit £70 worth of kandy pearl paint to it !

 below is the test fit of the brake bosses , not bad right out the packet but needed a tiny bit of shaping .

Notice the scorched flux , too much heat . Learning all the time , I now use 40% silver rod with suitable flux and run the whole joint a lot cooler . Just barely red is hot enough . The flux stays clear now and cleans up real easily. 

The boss on the stay bridge was 40% silver joined . Still need more practice to get nice clean joints with minimal flashing . 

more soon once i get it all cleaned ,sanded and ready for paint , i may add an integrated saddlebag support to the rear of the frame hence the low cable bridge position , its basically 4 10mm long, 4mm ID . bits of tube brazed to the seat stays , the bag support is made of 4mm stainless steel rod brazed together , the ends of the rack then slide into the 4 tubes . i got the idea from my old george elrick frame .

i will need mine much higher up to meet the bag .

still a couple of little things like the rear reflector and lining the stem to do.

 , i have fitted 700c wheels as the old 27" wheels i had on it need some attention , as a result the rear gran compe 610 brake caliper that was fitted didn't have enough drop , it was only 2mm too short but due to the pull arc of center pull brakes it would mean the brake pads would touch the tyre,  i had to fit the only caliper i had that had enough drop, a rather ratty old Weinmann Vainqueur 750 ' ,  i have cleaned it up and fitted new chrome bolts and it has come up well

next, the difficult bit, which colour?

almost in the final spec ,

 i have swapped the chainset for a stronglight 99 which will have a 48/32 ring set , the bars are deda piega RHM 26.0mm clamp with a velo orange classic quill stem , a very nice bit of kit that is well worth the rather large price ,   i have also fitted a Velo orange rando rack with integrated decaleur and a Campaign randonneur bag, also from VO , 

 a pair of my favourite hacking about tyres , the Schwalbe delta cruiser creme 700x35c, 

un speedy speedwing is 'Plush'

so, i finally got some time to do a dry build prior to repainting , i always do this to check alignment etc, the fork was poorly aligned , easy enough to gently bend one of the blades just enough to get the rim sitting nicely centered ,
i used any old bits that came to hand ,even with this hotch potch build it is a very nice bike to ride , not as spritely as my 1956 FlyingScot Continental ,the vindec  is a slightly softer more relaxed ride for sure , the continental makes you want to get the head down and use the big gears , the speedwing ,almost in spite of its name , is more in the other direction, admire the view and relax , its still a very agile and responsive bike , a little nervy in the turns with 27" wheels (constrictor conloy hollow section on airlights) , due to the high bottom bracket , i might get canti bosses(and a gusset or two on the 7/16 " pencil taper seat stays) brazed on for 650b wheels which will drop the BB height closer to the usual 10 7/8" - 11" .

as i mentioned at the end of the short tale about my take on the porteur racer's bike that i assembled ,i got hold of an old vindec speedwing special , i believe it to date to around 1949-1950 ,

 i knew that Brown Brothers did a proper club lever racing steed under the vindec brand umbrella but had never seen one in the metal , then,, one popped up on eBay.uk , i had it , full 531 butted tube set with double taper pencil chain stays and pencil seat stays with old 'pre 1955' nervex lightweight lugs .the paint is horrid as someone has done a half arsed job of painting it, as can be seen in the pic above it was originally a very nice 'and common for the age', pale powder blue,
 when it arrived i was a little disappointed as the seat lug was stretched a little more than i expected , the headtube was a little stretched too, i suspect the culprit to be the usual fitting of a Campagnolo headset at some point in its life , i came to this conclusion as every other headset 'Japanese or English'  i tried in it just fell out , when i fitted a rough  old 80's campag it was a press fit , more to do with the nervex lugs being a little too well reputed for stretching, along with their bottom brackets !! . these are minor issues that can be sorted , i will get a local frame builder to sort out an allen key type brazed on closure at the seat tube , as for the head tube i will flow a bit of silver solder around both upper and lower internal surfaces and then ream and face it to the correct size .

on the plus side i couldnt find any rust ! ,even inside the chainstays,seat tube and downtube ,shining a torch up into the tubes and all the steel is still gray and quite new looking , so i have a little work to do but due to its rarity and general condition  i have held off from just painting and riding it, i want to get it in fine fettle and build it as a Ranonneur or Rando as some call them , audax is the popular term in the UK ,
i would like to have cantilever bosses fitted but may just use centre pulls of some sort ,
my fixation with vindec bicycles started when i was about eight years old, my uncle had a good size bit of land over in fife and had quite a few old vindec girls 24" and 26" wheel roadsters , i spent many an hour ripping around on those bikes and even though the craftsmanship was rough ,those old bikes just kept on going , jumping ramps , doing drop offs of around two feet in height, over and over again and apart from the very slow punctures they all had i just couldnt break them,

the headtube lugs in question ,

  

the double taper pencil stays and cyclo rear dropout.

seat cluster
more soon