Originally Posted by bulgie

The first part (a large chunk of the book) is a primer on physics and mechanical engineering. IIRC he starts by defining space and time! ( long time since I read it, so grain of salt). Anyway he doesn't assume much prior engineering knowledge from the reader, but you need some math. That first part is pretty heavy reading, so if you just want to read about bikes skip to the second part, where he finally mentions bicycles.

You're going to want the Index for sure, it's how to quickly find elliptical chainwheels, or disk wheels or what-have-you.