William Chadeayne was an American earlylong-distance motorcyclist fromBuffalo, New York. He set a transcontinental record for North America in 1905, going fromNew York City toSan Francisco in47+1⁄2 days.[1][2] He was an officer of theThomas Auto-Bi company and rode one of their motorcycles on the transcontinental record-setting trip.[1]
Chadeayne's transcontinental journey took place between September 13 and October 30, 1905. He described the roads even east of theMississippi as "unspeakably vile ... seas of mud or oceans of sand", taking exactly two weeks to arrive in Chicago.[3] Chadeayne's time of 47.5 days beat the previous record of 51 days set byGeorge A. Wyman two years earlier.[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. In the portion fromOgden, Utah to San Francisco he was nearly killed by a train.[1][6]
The motorcycle he rode was a 3 horsepower (2.2 kW), single-cylinder 1906model year Auto-Bi which cost $145 new.[7][8]
The trip was recognized as the second transcontinental motorcycle trip in North America, and one of the first ten by any form of motor vehicle.[5]