Re: My Dual Sport/Dirt Bike Experiment (CRF250L Related)
Jarrett.... my guess is that the 250 is a bit under sprung for your weight. It looked like you were squatting the rear a bit. This will change the balance of the bike and removes weight from the front tire. That might have made the front a bit more loose and made it feel slippery.
When you ride a little bike fast, you typically are either standing or moving forward on the tank as far as you can and even extend your foot forward around corners to get some weight on the front tire and keep it planted. Sitting on the seat with the rear shock somewhat squatted probably made the front tire a bit light. I'd suggest getting comfortable standing and moving forward on the seat / hugging the tank will help you. You can work on that in your field and it will translate well when you get on loose roads.
I'd also suggest putting stiffer springs and adding bar risers to the 250 would be good changes if you plan on doing roads like that on the 250.
Also... speed provides stability on sand, gravel or loose rock. The stuff is less likely to move under you when you are rolling it faster. If you stand, you can also soak up bumps with your knees allowing you to go faster without the bike bouncing around as much.
As I mentioned to you on the trail, try this on straightaways and gradually / incrementally go faster and faster over loose stuff / rocks until you are comfortable with that speed.
You also hit a key when you said it may just be a comfort thing. Thousands of miles on the AT vs just a few hundred on the 250 definitely is playing a role here. More than anything, it's just seat time that gets you comfortable on a bike. Just keep working on it a bit at a time and you'll find that next thing to work on.
There's always something to learn...the next thing will be braking hard on loose stuff....you'll get super comfortable going fast on it and your limitation will be getting it slowed down enough to turn at the next corner....good thing is it's fun to learn.
Oh.... and I've probably crashed on a dirt bike about 500 times and I've never broken anything or gotten seriously hurt. Not saying it can't happen, but the speeds are much slower and there isn't 3000 pound cars to run you over so most likely it's scrapes and bumps and not ambulance rides when you crash. Bottom line...you learn by experience but some of the best lessons come from crashing. Nothing like a crash to remind you that you did that section wrong.