Its so nice being able to converse with somebody with real world experience with their kit. I could pick your brains for hours but I promise not to be a PITA until I get in trouble, but I've got a couple of questions and then I'll just sit back and watch your build for awhile. Great idea with the welded combo of Hero's dropouts and Paragon's. I'll have to find a stainless steel welder.

Like Hero's dropouts, I am not a fan of their rear brake bridge - functional but negative aesthetics. I was thinking of replacing it with one of Paragon's. My question is do you see any issues with going with ordinary steel vs stainless? I figure its going to end up encapsulated with carbon anyhow. So unless there's an issue with proper adhesion I'd like to spend the $ elsewhere.

I prefer as stiff a BB as I can get. Towards that end I was thinking of adding a couple of layers of carbon cloth as a sling/cradle along the bottom of the joints between the downtube, the BB shell and the chain stays. Carbon tow wraps will provide sufficient structural stability but I'm not sure how much stiffness. The cross weave of the cloth should help. Additionally I was going to add a tube (probably a hardwoodf dowel) between the chain stays just to the rear of the BB shell. It would probably have to be added after the BB has been completely wrapped - just because of the limited space; but it should stiffen up the structure. Any thoughts?

bmwjoe - The Calfee DIY kit looks interesting, but I am completely intimidated by mitered joints and his dropouts are also horizontal and even uglier than Hero's (if that's possible) Not having used either I think that Hero's is more user friendly for a beginner.