Years ago as I was riding across a particularly rough stretch of road, the bike started to tank slap. My only recourse during that scintillating 1 or 2 seconds was to get off. I was 23 years of age at the time, and bounced around fairly well, with no major injuries. At a brittle boned 50, I don't believe I'm as buoyant anymore...

After recently seeing two videos of bikes in the throes of tank slap, I wondered, aside from the popular emergency correction technique of "HOLY SH-- HANG ON!!!! is there any technique or specific way to correct and regain control of a bike when this happens?

For those who haven't witnessed the pure joys of tank slap, this is what it looks like
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZ1srcQMa_0&feature=related
When it happened to me, it was as if all was well in one second, and in the next second a 500 lb road devil had jumped aboard and had a hold of the handle bars. Not fun.

I also wonder what causes it? I assume the rough road I was on and my vehicle speed at the time was the catalyst, but beyond that, it's a mystery. Is it having a wheel as a gyroscope mounted on the end of what is essentially a spring & hydraulically loaded tuning fork? Whatever it was, I don't want to go there again anytime soon.