Originally Posted by MRoth
I'd look around to see if there is a framebuilder somewhere near you. I've found that sometimes a small repair like that is quite resonable to have done. I've had a few braze-ons put on and was surprised to find out how cheap it was. If you ask for just the repair and do the paint touch-up yourself it might be pretty cheap. It doesn't hurt to ask the price. And yes, get rid of that kickstand.
You know, I ended up doing just that. Even though I'm sure, as others have said, it wouldn't have hurt anything to go ahead with the frame as it was, I did contact a framebuilder and for a very reasonable price he replaced the bridge and even did a great job of touching up the paint where he did the repairs. And while I had the frame in for the repair, I had him add water bottle bosses to the seat tube, which will allow me to carry three water bottle cages. It was worth the peace of mind to have the bridge replaced, for me anyway. And btw, the framebuilder that did the work for me is David at Southwest Frameworks in Dallas. Very nice guy, he treated me right and I couldn't have been happier with the work-
edit: And YES, the kickstand is long gone!
