Jack Smith pushed a skateboard across America four times.
Then he rode an electric skateboard from Oregon to Washington, D.C.
In 2022, he pulled up to Loup’s electric vehicle charging station in a 1964 Volkswagen “Rust Bus” that was converted to run on all-electric power. Smith was retracing the route of Horatio Nelson Jackson, who in 1903 became the first person to cross America in an automobile. That route came through Columbus.
In 2023, he and his wife, Cathy, drove the Rust Bus from Chicago to Santa Monica, California, on Route 66
Smith has definitely had his share of adventures. But he’s never content to stay still for long. And so, in 2024, he began another adventure — a cross-country trip on an electric bicycle.
GEORGE WYMAN
George Wyman was born in 1877 in California. By the end of the century, he was a champion bicycle rider. He moved to Australia to further that career and in 1902, he became the first American to circumnavigate Australia on a bicycle.
He moved back to the U.S. in 1902 and became interested in motorized bicycles. That year, he became the first person to cross the Sierra Nevada range on a motor vehicle, riding his motorbike from San Francisco to Reno, Nevada.
That accomplishment inspired the idea of taking a motorbike across the continent.
He departed San Francisco on May 16, 1903, riding the same 1902 motorbike. It had a 200 cc, 1.5 horsepower engine and could go about 25 miles per hour.
His journey was incredibly difficult. The dirt trails and wagon tracks were often impassable, so he rode on the railroad tracks for much of his journey. He had breakdowns that required improvised repairs until he could get new parts. As he neared Aurora, Illinois, his engine’s crankshaft snapped so he pedaled to Chicago where he had to wait five days for a new crank to arrive by railway express.
On July 6, 1903, he arrived in New York City, becoming the first person to cross the United States on a motor vehicle. The 3,800-mile journey took him 51 days.
Twenty days later, Jackson arrived in New York in a 1903 20-horsepower Winton touring car, becoming the first person to travel across the country in an automobile. His journey followed nearly the same route and took 63 days.
Despite taking longer and arriving after Wyman, Jackson’s trip in the “horseless carriage” is the one that captivated the public. And so Wyman’s accomplishment was largely forgotten.
The George A. Wyman Memorial Project aims to promote Wyman’s story.
“The Wyman story is one of personal courage, determination and struggle to overcome adversity . . . Wyman faced his long-distance motorcycling saga alone, without a backup crew, with only his ingenuity and resourcefulness to keep himself and his motorcycle moving,” according to the Wyman Memorial Project website.
VINTAGE ELECTRIC BIKES
Vintage Electric
Bikes Scrambler
40 mph top speed
40–75 miles per charge
750/4000-watt drivetrain
Photo courtesy of Vintage Electric Bikes.
When Smith learned Wyman’s story, he was hooked.
“The guy was incredibly tough,” he said. “Besides being a great rider, he was a great mechanic.”
And then he knew what to do for his next adventure — he would recreate Wyman’s route across the U.S. in an electric bike. But first, he needed the bike. So he reached out to Vintage Electric Bikes owner Andrew Davidge.
It wasn’t the first time someone asked Davidge about getting one of his bikes for a cross-country trips. In fact, he’d gotten that question several times before. But Smith was the first person who was experienced enough to reel Davidge in.
“After just five minutes of talking with him, I said ‘We’re all in. Let’s build you a custom bike. Let’s do this thing,’” Davidge said.
Davidge built his first custom bike just out of high school. It had a 10-mile range. Then he took two production prototypes to a car show and sold 40 bikes.
That success prompted him to drop out of college to start a business that blended his love of automobiles, bicycles, and invention.
“Ever since then we’ve just been engineering, designing, and fabricating bikes and always continuing to make them better and better,” Davidge said.
While his bikes continue to get better — they can go nearly 100 miles on a charge — their look remains rooted in the past.
“I wanted to design a bike that’s always going to look cool and won’t age with different trends that come out,” Davidge said. “Really, the safest way to do that is to build something inspired by the 1920s that has universally always been cool.”
SMITH’S JOURNEYS
Smith started his journey hauling a trailer. Later, a friend joined him with a van where he stored his gear. Photo courtesy of Jack Smith.
Smith said Davidge’s bikes appealed to him because they reminded him of old motorcycles and that would help connect his journey to that of Wyman.
On June 4, he launched his trip from the streets of San Francisco on the 82-pound Scrambler bike. He also had a trailer with his gear and an extra battery. Wyman was unsupported in his journey and Smith wanted to make his trip solo as well.
Just a few days into his journey, he faced the toughest part of his journey — the Sierra Nevada mountain range. But with lots of pedaling to conserve battery power, he made it through Donner Pass.
He kept plugging away, moving on to Nevada, Utah and Wyoming.
On June 22, he rode from Cheyenne and made it to Kimball, Nebraska. From there he went to Sidney and Ogallala. One June 25, he made it to North Platte only to face a difficult decision.
“It looks like a perfect storm is developing,” he wrote on his Facebook page. “This heat is relentless. It’s 100 degrees here in North Platte, Nebraska, and the forecast is calling for it to continue. In addition, my (George’s) route is leading me directly into the major flooding that is occurring in Nebraska and Iowa.”
Smith decided to suspend his ride and returned home in a rental van.
But he didn’t want to call it quits.
In September, he announced on social media that he was going to restart his journey and asked if anyone would be interested in coming along as a support person.
Burt Beavers, who knew Smith through the skateboarding community, jumped at the chance.
“I’m recently retired and had the time and wanted to go across the United States,” Beavers said.
On October 15, the pair restarted the journey in North Platte. For the second half of the journey, Smith eliminated the bike trailer and is put his gear in a van driven by Beavers.
On October 17, they arrived in Columbus for a short stop before continuing on their way. Smith travels about 100 miles per day and he is getting 70-90 miles per battery.
“I love this part of the country because it’s nice and flat and you can just go,” he said.
The Scrambler can approach 40 miles per hour, but Smith generally rides at around 18–22 miles per hour. The single-speed bike has five assist settings. It is also equipped with a throttle, but Smith said he usually only uses that at intersections when he needs to accelerate quickly into the flow of traffic.
“I’m always pedaling,” he said.
Beavers usually drives ahead and explores towns along the route. The pair are staying in hotels each night and they simply take the bike into the rooms to charge overnight.
So far, Smith said his journey is much easier than Wymans. He can stay in nice rooms at night. There are paved roads. If he needs a break, he can jump in the van for a bit.
Like Wyman, he is at the mercy of the elements for much of the day however. The winds were gusty when he pulled into Columbus. He’s had brutal cold mornings and hot afternoons.
But it’s all part of the journey.
Smith said people have recreated Wyman’s trip on motorcycles or gasoline-powered bicycles.
“As far as I know nobody’s done it on an electric bike,” he said. “And people ask me if I’m doing it because I’ll be the first.”
His answer is always no.
“I’m just doing it,” he said.
And we can’t wait to see what he does next.
Jack Smith (left) and Larry Newland charged the Rust Bus at Loup Power District’s electric vehicle charging station on June 3, 2022.
Excerpt from George Wyman’s journal featuring Columbus:
The roads were still impassible going out of Kearney, and I followed the railroad tracks to Grand Island, and even then I had to walk over several short stretches where it was sandy, and every half mile I had to dismount for the crossing of the wagon road, the highway being in such vile condition that its dirt was piled upon the tracks so that I could not ride through it.
— George Wyman, 1903 journal entry
In the 11 miles between Grand Island and Chapman, where I stopped for dinner, I broke six spokes. I rode, with the rear wheel thus weakened, over the ties 10 miles to Central City, where I stopped for repairs. I left Central City at 4:45, and rode 44 miles to Columbus, arriving there at 8:25 p.m.
This made 108 miles for the day and I felt satisfied. On this day again I narrowly escaped being lifted from the roadbed by an engine pilot. It was a fast mail train this time. I was riding along outside the rail, where the space between the rail and edge of the embankment was only six inches, and I could not look around without danger of banging into the rail or slipping over the edge. I did not hear the train until the whistle sounded, when the engine was within 100 feet of me. I just went down that embankment as if I had been pushed.
I left Columbus, Nebraska at 7:40 a.m. My start was later than usual because I had to wait to get gasoline. They do not keep it in the stores there, but a wagon goes around in the morning to the various houses and supplies what they want for the day. I had to take to the railroad once more from the outset. After going 28 miles over the ties I noticed that the roads looked better, and I rode on them for the rest of the day, stopping at Fremont for dinner and arriving at Omaha at 5:30 p.m.
At Omaha I feel that my self-imposed task was as good as accommodated. The roughest and most trying part of the country has been crossed, and I have traveled more than 2,000 miles of the total distance. I have reached the great waters of the Missouri; the promised land of the East, where I hope to find good roads, lies ahead of me. My anticipations of what lies before me are bright.
Follow Smith’s story on social media.
Learn more:
Smith’s journey in the Rust Bus & Horatio’s Drive
The George A Wyman Memorial Project
Vintage Electric Bikes
Story by Stacy Wemhoff