Well I'm thinking about these things here and there for a couple days and I suppose they make sense...
I guess the theory would be based on two factors...
1. That brake rotors are irregular and have high/low areas (which are so small, we don't feel them)
2. That this irregularity is enough to make a difference in locking vs rolling given equal lever input
If those are actually true (which would be amazing to me), then it makes sense.
The device acts as a suspension for the brake pads, allowing them to maintaing "traction" on the rotor just as tires need suspension to maintain traction on irregular road.
However, I'd love to see evidence that these rotor irregularities actually exist, and that would also mean that this device would work at different efficiencies depending on how true your rotors were (meaning greater difference on one person's bike vs another's).
Being a person who works with micrometers and .0001" scales, I can see it being possible. A held brake lever establishes a "gap" between the pads for this rotor to pass through. The force required to rotate that rotor through the gap could vary greatly with even a very small difference in rotor thickness.
Of course, even a high performance braking system is not 100% rigid (no matter is 100% rigid), so one would think that this tiny difference in interference would be taken up by the calipers flexing and whatnot, and also by the give of the brake line.
That said, they do have tests that if not snake oil, show shorter stopping distances. I'll be putting a micrometer on my rotors soon.
Sean
