William Chadeayne

He set a transcontinental record for North America in 1905, going from New York City to San Francisco in 47+1⁄2 days.

[1][2] He was an officer of the Thomas Auto-Bi company and rode one of their motorcycles on the transcontinental record-setting trip.

He described the roads even east of the Mississippi as "unspeakably vile ... seas of mud or oceans of sand", taking exactly two weeks to arrive in Chicago.

[4][5] As for Wayman Chadeayne found there were insufficient roads in America at the time so he rode on railroad tracks for six or seven hundred miles of the journey.

[1][6] The motorcycle he rode was a 3 horsepower (2.2 kW), single-cylinder 1906 model year Auto-Bi which cost $145 new.