Loose bottle cage bolt insert(?)

Recently bought a 2nd hand road bike and just noticed that one of the water bottle cage bolts appears to be cross threaded and won't come out. Also, if I use an allen key on it and turn it slightly it turns the insert(?) thing that fits into the frame. The frame is alu and appears to have a small part which fits into the frame and which the bolt screws into. Can this be taken out and replaced? Is it a relatively easy job? It's my only bike atm and I'm reluctant to book the bike into a shop for such a small issue and then not be able to ride.

Take it out, get one from LBS, glue it in: done.

See this thread.
http://www.lfgss.com/thread47123.html

Sounds easy. Might take it to the LBS though if it's a quick job as I'm hesitant about glueing something directly into the frame.

They are not glued in, a tool is used to compress the nutsert agasinst the frame material.
Time to insert one nutsert by hand approx 5 seconds.

Sounds easy. Might take it to the LBS though if it's a quick job as I'm hesitant about glueing something directly into the frame.

Very easy - araldite is all you need. It's only a bottle cage boss, not a rack mount etc - doesn't do a lot of heavy work!

as above, putting a rivnut IN is a piece of piss if you have the right tool- we tend to put in stainless steel rivnuts BUT......

getting the old one out can be a right bastard of a job, especially if you are worried about scratching the frame and/or the old one is stainless, instead of cheese (alloy)- think loads of scary dremmeling with a carbide burr or a stone, some minor chance of slipping and tearing up the alloy frame.... possibly NOT being able to get the back side of the rivnut out of the down tube - I have gotten stuck with the holes at BOTH ends of the down tube too small to extract the sodding fragment... tinkle, tinkle every time you go over a bump

High risk, low reward- not my favourite kind of job....... but sometimes you have to do them......

is you can get the bolt out, tightening up the existing insert is relatively easy, if you cant its an arsehole of a job to get the old insert and bolt out.

Topper-is this what you had in mind?

http://www.parktool.com/blog/repair-help/water-bottle-fittings

Any advice appreciated

that wasnt the exact method that i was thinking of, but its exactly the same principal. this does however assume that the thread is ok in the insert. if the thread is fucked, then it makes it infinitely more dificult as you need to re tap the insert first, assuming its not damaged beyond repair. this is what makes this case a whole lot more complicated. id attempt this method first though before trying to get the old insert out, because as scherrit says, that is not a fun job at all.