My disk brake mounts (tabs) have been bent during air transport. The local bike shop says they won't bend it back due to safety and liability issues and says I need to replace the fork, which is not readily available as the bike is a not so common Salsa Fargo. Any advice on re-bending the tabs myself?

I'm supposed to leave on a bike tour tomorrow and need to decide whether riding fully loaded would be dangerous with a re-bent tab. The frame is all steel.

Unless the bend is quite bad and/or the weld is cracked, bending it back into line should be safe.

For steel, depending on how bent it is, it could be possible to bend it back, but the shop wants to leave itself outside of an liability. Could you post a picture?

Is the fork hard to replace because that exact fork is no longer available, or is it because the fork is a super weird size? I would think an early Salsa wouldn't be any sort of exotic steer tube size.

If it's a common enough size, I would look to replace it with something that had a more substantial brake mount. I would hate to think of something like that being a future issue.

Firestarter Fork | Parts & Accessories | Salsa Cycles

^ this is the fork currently spec'ed on Fargos. Any shop that deals with QBP can order a new one. A bunch are listed in the O-town area if you click 'buy it local'

Salsa QBP stuff is widely distributed , have the shop call and Order one, most have a QBP account.\

And unless you pay for overnight air freight , you wont be leaving tomorrow,.

Phat Moose Cycles doesn't have one - can't talk them into taking one off a frame? I would expect a Surly fork would work just as well if someone has one. Even a Kona Project 2 might work.