I can’t get my head round the stories of people going through pads every 2 laps.
Does this happen to EVERYONE? or it is a case of poor brake setup
Some brakes will cope better than others. Some calipers won’t accept a new set of pads as easy as others as the pistons can’t be set back into the bores with ease to enable the thickness of the rotor and new pads to clear and be drag free.
Shimano are usually excellent when it comes to how easy it is to get the pistons flush into the caliper without any drama.. even a brand new set of Formula or Avid having just gone through their first set of pads could be problematic. The clearances from new are nothing like most Shimano’s.
Some folk see sense and run the likes of an Avid BB7 and set the pad clearance as far away from the disc as possible.. without losing the brake power/lever travel needed. With fresh cables and a bit of lube in the outer casings they should stand up to all conditions and temperatures at the puffer (a drop of oil in the outer casings if hosing the bike down in sub zero temperatures has got to be a good thing,even if cable companies recommend no lube in their cables)
They might not be hydro but they are more likely to enable you to race the puffer with less pad changes over hydro disc brakes.
For anyone racing it, I would recommend fitting full width (new) pads in their brakes and lube the pistons well before the race. Turning up with half worn pads and a brake that’s never been cleaned or bled is asking for problems as once you’ve worn the pads out,you will be trying to fit new pads and trying to reset pistons into their bores mid-race.
Edit: Wearing pads right down to the backing plate wears the rotor. This is why some folk can’t believe how much they have to change the pads due to puffer grit. It’ll be the pad clearances due to the amount of servicing they’ve had and the worn rotor that causes some folk to ‘have’ to replace pads 15 times in the Puffer, while others using the same brakes only change 3 times.