It would signal something of a return to a previous era when Australia was a hub for iconic cycling brands.

The country today produces a tiny fraction of what it once did.

But the pandemic has created world-wide shortages right at a time when sales of bikes and parts are surging because of lockdown, Bicycle Industries Australia's Peter Bourke said.

"This city has the manufacturing base so we would be in a position to utilise it for the boutique bike parts scene," the Bendigo resident said.

Mr Bourke said bike and bike part shortages would likely continue for the next 12 to 18 months because international shipping times had blown out.

Parts could also be more expensive because the cost of shipping containers had risen threefold, he said.

The problems would continue despite Australia being on track to import a record1.75 million bicycles imported into the country in a single 12 month period.

BIA expects the record to be set by June 30.

Bendigo's seven bike stores were facing much the same 50 per cent spike in demand as the rest of Australia, Mr Bourke said.

Australian manufacturers able to move quickly enough might consider small runs of specific parts, he said.

It is an idea that the Bendigo Manufacturing Group learned about over the weekend.

Group chair Mark Brennan said it was too early to have formed a position but that he and others in town wanted to learn more.

"There's definitely some specialised opportunities there," he said.

"We'd be looking for ways to add something unique through the manufacturing process, maybe at that higher-end or boutique end, because we never can compete in the mass market side."

Bendigo's manufacturing industry has largely withstood the ravages of the coronavirus pandemic, estimates by economic consultants REMPLAN suggest.

Already the city's biggest industry going into the pandemic, it weathered drops in total output early in the pandemic, before starting a climb in spite of multiple lockdowns through late 2020 and early 2021.

Manufacturing output was 0.33 per cent better in March than it was just before the pandemic, the REMPLAN figures suggest.

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