Originally Posted by
Sheldon Brown
Won't the SUV driver's insurance company be paying for this?
See:
http://www.massbike.org/resources/crash.htm
What you paid for the bike is irrelevant. Is this bike worth $70 with a new rear wheel? I would say, yes.
It should be possible to remove the freewheel, actually. I would chop out the spokes and grab the hub in a vise. This will mangle the hub, but that hub is nothing special anyway.
Sheldon "Ve Haff Ways..." Brown
An alternative if you really want to save the hub (assuming a modern Shimano-style casette).
Take the broken wheel and a casette lockring remover to your freindly neighborhood mechanic, and ask him to give it a quick burst with an impact wrench (set on reverse, of course), while you hold the casette with heavy gloves or a heavy rag.
Obviously not to be used for installing, but in this instance, it works nicely. (Been there, done that, saved an expen$ive hub.)