It seems every generation has one, a rider who dominated the amateur ranks, only to be plagued by injuries, never able to show his true potential in the pro ranks. This has been Jett Reynolds story, at least until now. Once dominant to the tune of nine-straight titles at the Monster Energy AMA Amateur National Championship from 2013-2017, he was pretty much unbeatable at the ranch until injuries derailed his efforts. He didn't even compete at Loretta's in 2018 or 2019, and when he did return in 2020, he was still fighting yet another injury, and the issues remained. It didn't get any smoother after turning professional. Reynolds crashed and injured himself on press day on the eve of his pro supercross debut, then later suffered a broken pelvis, and then complications from a hand injury and surgery gone wrong.
Somehow, Reynolds has actually still not lined up for a Monster Energy Supercross event yet. His deal with long-time backer Kawasaki was up. After switching to Muc-Off FXR ClubMX Yamaha for the 2024 season, Jett took the year to rebuild and stay somewhat healthy. He again got injured right before the '24 supercross season, but finally got healthy and started showing some signs during Pro Motocross.
Now as he prepares for another year with the team, he would like to rewrite his story as he recently told Steve Matthes.
Steve Matthes: All right, Jett Reynolds, so it's November, you resigned with Club, you're back on the team. How's Supercross prep going?
Jett Reynolds: Yeah, it's been going good putting in a long day of riding. We've been doing like an hour and a half an hour, 45 minutes a day, pretty big, but definitely I'm just feeling more experienced this time of year compared to last year and really don't have anything to complain about. So nice.
Do you know East/West yet? Does it matter? Do you care?
Actually, I do care and I think we're going West Coast.
I don't want to focus on the negative because you really broke through, but did you finally feel like this past year you started to ride like you know you can and have in the past and what people thought? Did you start to feel it?
No.
You wanna be better?
Yeah. I mean, it's good for me that I just got a couple races but in reality, it's still embarrassing. I don't wanna be 12th place guy. I don't wanna be a tenth-place guy. I wanna be up in the mix and where I feel like I can get. Yeah, I've been through a lot. It's gonna take some time. I'm not stupid, I'm not gonna be jumping up and down over a tenth-place finish. Yeah, I did get a tenth at Washougal and then I got hurt. You know, it was just like building blocks and that's kind of how I looked at the whole season. I wasn't trying to go out there and set the world on fire or anything.
Yeah, you could see you got better as the nationals went on. Right, and then of course, I think you did your collarbone.
After Washougal, during that break. I broke a collarbone. I was able to come back for those last three SMX races, which I was actually pretty happy I was able to make them.
Yeah. So, I thought you'd be happier with the 12th and the 10th. But no, you know there's more there.
I feel like my ceiling is higher than what I've shown and I have belief in myself, and you know, hell, there's been times where, where I didn't believe it. But I believe in myself right now.
You resigned with Club. I don't know if you had any other options, but how is it? Tell us what it's been like there for you?
Yeah, I arrived here a year ago in October. Man, at first, I knew it was going to be tough. Like, I've lived in California my whole life. I showed up here, I knew it was gonna be hard work. But honestly, here everything felt like a team, like, we do everything together. It's such a program and that's exactly what I need. And just from like a year ago till now, like the whole crew, like our bikes, just everything keeps elevating. Even with our nutrition program here, we have nutrition meetings. We go over and what we should eat on these days and what we don't eat and through the gym program just dude, everything is evolving around here so much and it's becoming super legit and I'm super stoked on it and it just keeps getting better.
So, do you live on the property?
Yeah, I live here full time. I live here in the dirt!
So, what's that like? J-Mart and Marchbanks were like, “I love it. It's something to focus on. There's nothing to do. There's nothing to get me in trouble. It's just training, riding, resting, training, riding, resting.” They loved it. Other guys like Phil Nicoletti and Coty Schock are like, “There's no way I wanna do that. I want to get away from the place and break away from the riding and the training.” So, I've got two different sides.
Well, to be honest, I kinda know what I'm gonna do if I'm not here at the property. It's just more serious for me living here and doing the whole thing. Whether I like it or not, it's what I need. I can't say I necessarily am thrilled to be living around the dirt bike scene 24/7 like that and can’t get away for moment. Like I do wish I had that, but realistically, I know myself and I know I need this right now. So, I'm grateful for at least knowing better.
Like I said, you've been through some ups and downs. Where there times were you and your family were ever like, “Dude, it just not working, it's not worth it.” Did you ever come close to quitting?
Yeah. I did. I remember like back when I was even like 15 or 16 when I first started kind of getting injured and even my dad one day, of course, I didn't get along with my dad around that age, but he was just like, “Dude, what's gonna happen next?” and I'm just like, “Dude, don't even put that thought into my head.” It gets scary, you start to think about things, and I was just kind of like whatever happens happens, this is what I'm gonna do right now.
You had so much success as an amateur, right? And there was a lot of hype around you and then it was just injury, injury, injury and maybe even feeling a bit burnt out?
I can't say I've been burnt out of riding a dirt bike just because I haven't had that [much] time [on a bike due to the injuries], I feel like. Also I never really had that hard work, grind and all of that until I got here. I can say I work hard now. I'm just burnt out on the injuries. I don't wanna get hurt, like who does?
Listen to the entire podcast here:
No, dude. What was it? Minneapolis was your arm or your wrist?
So that whole year leading up to [pro supercross debut in] Minneapolis, I mean, I broke my pelvis in December on these whoops that were four feet, as tall just as rhythms next to them, you know. Then I had like two weeks on the bike, then in Minneapolis I broke my hand and a lot of complications going on with that and that took me off the bike for a year and kind of ruined me. I'm still trying to get over that one. I've pretty much done it all. Like both my shoulders are pretty good, you know, I've done my hands, I've done a knee, I've done ankles.
Damn. Is there a reason why, can you pinpoint it? Is it technique, is it just shitty luck?
Well, the way I look at it is, it goes back to amateur days. I would get hurt, I'd get surgery. I would have like a guy like Ryan Holiday or someone from Kawi say, “Hey, take your time, this and that.” And man, I just really didn't listen, and I regret it so much now. Every time I would just get back on the bike, go straight back to racing, like no time taken off. I wish I took the time, did the therapy and did all that stuff. But it's like, as soon as the plate was in or whatever, it was just like back to it.
Was that just internal pressure, or your parents?
It's hard to say because when I first got hurt, I took my time and that became one after another. It's pressure from myself, just kind of what I've done in my career as an amateur rider. I don't want to let people down, I'm making hundreds of thousands of dollars as an amateur riding a supermini, just stupid, ridiculous stuff. I mean, it kind of ruined me in a way. But, you know, just that urge like, “I don't wanna be the kid that always gets hurt and I don't want to be the next failure or whatever” and in a lot of people's eyes it's exactly that way. But I'm here to kind of rewrite the story and do that whole aspect. But I wouldn't say any pressure from my dad or anyone, I guess it was just more a dumb 15, 16-year-old kid and even at 18, 19. I'm still dumb. [Laughs] I'm still figuring all this out.
How was Mitch Payton to deal with during the injuries and downtime?
I don't want to talk any negative about Mitch, I think he did everything he probably could for me. I'd say I kind of [messed] everything up and I admit it, things definitely weren't the greatest with me and him. I would say that's due to injuries and he wanted to do some things his way. The whole hand injury from Indianapolis, like I've had this doctor that's done all my surgeries up until then. I don't think he necessarily liked my doctor very much. So, he kind of told me “Hey, you know, we have this guy Dr. Rubenstein just go to him and get it done.” And also, I had other people in my corner kind of tell me to go do that and it was just right down the road, I guess. I went there and did that and that was a whole disaster.
Like, I already had like a screw in my hand at that point. He was supposed to take a screw out and put a new one in and the guy took half the screw out, like left it halfway out, put a new one in. It didn't line up with the right bones and yeah, super awful.
You had a lot of pressure on you. You were the next one. You were the chosen one for them, right?
Yeah. I mean, he [Mitch] told me himself, “We picked you for a reason, you know, we didn't just take you, we picked you.” And I guess I didn't take it serious enough and I get it, but the way it all ended was, I wish it could have ended better, on better terms and stuff like that because I don't want to create any enemies in this sport.
I didn't think there was any way Marchbanks would ever go back to ride for Mitch Peyton and he's back. So, you never know.
Yeah. It's just, I was with Kawi for a long time and man, they obviously weren't happy with me. I never even got a phone call like saying like, "Hey, sorry, it didn't work out for you, but good luck on the, on the next chapter." You know, it's just, it's a weird ending, man. I wish it could have ended better. It's a professional business and sometimes it can be cut throat, it can be cruel, all of that, you know?
How is it being teammates with Max Vohland?
Yeah. You know, I raced the guy my whole life and I was super happy, I was excited that he was coming here. I mean, I've never, even as an amateur, I never talked to him or whatever, I guess we're rivals or whatever that is. Dude, now we work out together twice a day and we ride dirt bikes together like we're on the same exact program and you know, he's a good kid, I think. We all get along and I think we just have, even all my teammates, we're all pretty freaking cool with each other. I feel like most teams are, I don't necessarily know, but I know when I was at PC it just wasn't quite a thing and here and here it's just like, dude, we're all friends.
