In his 30 years in Southeast Portland, Erik Tonkin can’t remember another time when his store, Sellwood Cycle Repair, has been this busy. There have been multiple times this summer when the business has taken in over 30 bikes for repair in just the first 45 minutes after opening.

Other Portland bike shops have reported similar booms in business since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. But that increased interest often doesn’t translate to corresponding revenue increases.

Tonkin said his business relies on bicycle sales, not repairs, for most of its revenue. And those sales have been hard to come by this summer for Tonkin and bicycle shop owners across the country as manufacturers have been unable to meet the rise in demand.

“We haven’t been able to get the product that we would need in order to truly capitalize on the interest level,” Tonkin said. “If we had even the average amount of supply, we would be having our best year. We’d be up 25% to 50%.”

Sales of bicycles, equipment and repair services have exploded since the start of the coronavirus pandemic in March. There were 63% more bike sales nationwide in June as compared to the same time last year, according to the NPD Group, a market research company.

While NPD saw unprecedented growth in the sales of family-friendly, adult lifestyle and children’s bicycles in the first three months of the pandemic, the research company reported that the continued uptick in June sales was driven by interest in higher-end bikes.

The group said that a decrease in inventory at retail stores likely contributed to fewer sales of lower-end bicycles.

Mark Ontiveros, co-owner of West End Bikes in downtown Portland, said that his store enjoyed record sales in July, but he lost potential sales this month because it didn’t have enough bikes to sell.

Some customers who ordered bicycles will be able to pick them up in September, but others must wait until January for specific bikes.

Ryan Barrett, the marketing manager at River City Bicycles in Southeast Portland, said that bicycles under $1,000 have drawn the most interest, but that the business has been unable to keep up with demand.

“While the demand for bikes and for bike repairs has skyrocketed since March, supply has remained limited and has not been able to keep pace with demand, which has been challenging for both us and our customers,” Barrett said.

“If it weren’t for shortages, we’re sure sales would be record-setting.”

Several factors have contributed to the lack of supply.

Factories in China and Taiwan, where the majority of U.S. bike imports come from, shut down early this year due to the coronavirus pandemic. It has taken time for those factories to return to their pre-pandemic production levels. Manufacturers also simply weren’t prepared for a sudden surge in demand and hadn’t placed orders for the amount of supplies they would need.

Bicycle imports to the United States have been down since 2018 as well, when President Donald Trump implemented new tariffs on goods produced in China. According to The New York Times, the number of bicycles imported to the United States dropped by 25% last year and were down by 30% in the first quarter of this year compared to the same period in 2019.

At the same time, interest in cycling has exploded as people have started to look for new and safer recreational activities and safer alternatives for commuting during the pandemic.

Bill Larson, owner of Cyclepath PDX in Northeast Portland, said that he has been lucky that his store has been able to maintain significant levels of inventory through most of the pandemic.

His store, which specializes in high-end bicycles, usually puts in large orders early in the year. Cyclepath decided to go ahead with those orders even though they were unsure what would happen to bicycle shops once the pandemic hit. When the business saw an uptick in business in March, it immediately started ordering as much inventory as they could.

“We were preparing for it to be a tough sales period for the summer,” Larson said. “We still went ahead with our preorders, but were ready to pivot on a dime. The whole industry felt the same way. A lot of manufacturers scaled back on their preorders and so, that’s why a lot of bike brands were caught with no inventory very early on.”

Larson said his store has started to see more delays recently as they’ve tried to purchase additional inventory. Ontiveros, too, said there is a lot of uncertainty heading into the fall due to the lack of supply.

Still, Ontiveros is excited about what the increased interest over the last five months could mean for the cycling industry in the long-term.

Before the pandemic, 6.3% of Portlanders commuted by bike, the highest percentage of bike commuters for a large American city, according to the Portland Bureau of Transportation. Ontiveros, whose shop sells to a lot of bike commuters, said he wouldn’t be shocked to see that number reach 10% as people continue to social distance and look for commuting alternatives to public transit.

He has also seen numerous families coming to the store over the last several months to buy bikes for their children. Ontiveros is hopeful that those kids, who might not have taken to biking if it weren’t for the pandemic, will continue with the sport long after it ends.

Tonkin, too, hopes that the industry is capturing new customers that will return for years to come. Even though he estimates his sales are only up by less than 2% this year due to a lack of inventory, Tonkin said that almost half the customers he sees coming into the store for repairs or to order bicycles have never been in before.

“I think our challenge in the bike industry is, How can we actually capture this moment?” Tonkin said.