:laugh Well its good to know I guessed right

I've not ridden a street bike with an extended swinger - closest I've come is playing around with where in the stock swinger I run the axle (i.e. chain adjustment). On the TL I've found that for my purposes (mostly commuting) I like the wheel nearly all the way back in the adjustments, but then I'm used to MX bikes which tend to have longish wheelbases.
Just realized, you said crash on friday? What happend? Are you ok?
For traction, esp this time of year, focus on tires and suspension settings. Cold weather does increase the damping front and rear a bit which can lessen traction and it of course decreases tire grip. I find that different brand/model tires that are similar when hot can be drastically different when cold. Also, a bit lower tire pressure helps get a bit more grip in the cold as the tire will heat up more quickly and stay warmer, plus the larger contact patch and more ability to conform to the road surface helps too.
For the record I run AV45/46 (avon) tires and find them quite good in the cold compared to the other tires I've used (D207 = scary, M1 = slipery, but predictable, BT020 = average grip, not predictable, tends to skip rather than smootly slide). For commuting I run 40F 42R in the summer and 38F 40R winter pressure most of the time and they still stick quite well, but for more serious riding I'd drop that to 34F 36R give or take a couple psi.