ORIGINAL: Rendegade
Ooh, I hadn't thought of that.
I guess it would take 50% of the sinusoidal travel out of it, the only true way to get a linear travel would be to have another pulley in the control surface.
That being said, do we want linear travel? having expo in the system would say not.
In this case the effect wouldn't be noticed around neutral, as it would be identical to a straight rod at the neutral point. However the straight rod would become less sensitive as it moved closer to the endpoints, giving your more response at full rudder deflection.
Actually it's starting to sound like a pretty cool setup. Fun to think about, probably more so if I wasn't getting my brain kicked by finals this week.