Chris and Joan O'Brien were driving to their Quarry Hill home in the early hours of Sunday morning when they heard a strange noise as they passed over the Hallam Street bridge.

Worried they had hit something, the couple turned around to check.

They found a length of snapped high-tensile metal wire tied to the rails of the bridge. The wire had snapped as the car drove through. 

The couple drove home and found the thin wire wrapped around their car's rear axle and some damage to the front of the vehicle.

Mr O'Brien said the "malicious" act could have had far more serious consequences. 

"We're a bit cross, first about the bit of damage to the car but more so about the fact that it was so dangerous," he said. "If a cyclist had hit it they could've been knocked into the path of a car and could've been really badly injured," he said.

Mr O'Brien said the wire was strung about 60 centimetres above the road. 

Mr O'Brien said he was disappointed someone would act so recklessly in his neighbourhood.

"Generally, it's a really good area," he said. "I'm pretty disappointed that someone would deliberately do that; something that could really hurt someone."

Bike Bendigo president Geoff O'Sullivan said he believed it was an isolated incident.

"Obviously it's potentially a very dangerous thing to do; it could really injure cyclists or people walking or jogging," he said.

"You just can never know what the consequences of doing something like that might be."

Mr O'Sullivan said he hoped the perpetrators regretted their actions.

"Hopefully those who've done it will realise it was a really silly thing to do that could have hurt someone."

Mr O'Sullivan said incidents of aggression towards cyclists were few in Bendigo.

"You do get the odd incident when a vehicle is driving a bit too close to a bike but on the whole people are considerate," he said.

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