What's the preference on tubes? I ride mostly singletrack type trails, usually once a week 10 mile rides. So far my flat tires have come from riding pavement around my house rather than on the trail. But I have just been using regular tubes with no slime or anything.

So, what's the preferred setup that is light, doesn't break the bank and will last with minimal maintenance?
Most of the people I ride with use slime and have no problems. Any drawbacks to the slime approach?

I already got bent over today, I bought a pre-slimed tube with presta valve for 12 bones... but I needed it to go riding today after work and I didn't want to worry about it.

What should I do next time? Or should this setup last for a while? Thoughts? Also, is there any advantage to the presta valve setup versus schraders? Thanks for the insight, I'll wait patiently for response since I know this board rarely gets checked. Peace.

Personally i use a reg. tube and keep the preassure at about 50lbs. Don't really have a problem with flats. Make sure the inside liner around the rim is good too. That will cause flats.
Don't know anyone who uses slime?

I see a lot of guys use slime in their inner tubes if they ride around a lot of thistles and objects that are able to get into to the casing of the tire and puncture the tube. I’ve never had to use them since I ride in the Midwest, but I know slime tubes are a bit heavier, and that’s rotational weight, the worst kind since your legs will be getting your wheels moving.

I’ve run some lightweight latex tubes in the past with decent reults. They were lighter than normal black rubber tubes, and supposedly better with pinch flats, but they were pink, and a bit spendy. Now I’m just running plain old normal black rubber tubes and those work fine for me.

I guess the big thing with flats is pinch flats, that’s what everybody seems to get if they don’t run over a nail or what have you. Try to pick a good line, and avoid hitting rocks or stumps, seems like that’s what gets everybody.

Go with a standard tube, and use velox rim tape. It's not that big of a deal to fix a flat every now and then. I've worked in a bike shop for 15 years and I'd guess at least 50% of the flats I've seen were preventable;
1. Put some air in! Way too many people have underinflated tires. There is a lot of trial and error here, start a ride over inflated and play with it untill you start to get some bulge in the tire when going over an edge. In smooth trails, go to the max psi, or a bit over and get some more performance.
2. Inspect your tires. Replace if there is caseing dammage and pull out and rocks/debris stuck in the tread. Replace tires before they are too worn out. And don't use a $10 wal-mart tire. Thread count makes a big difference in performance and puncture resistance.
3. Spend $6 and put Velox cloth rim tape. I have seen way too many flats from the pos plastic/rubber rim strips. I don't care how "high end" your bike is, every manufacture skimps here. Save yourself the headache.
4. Install correctly. Put a little air in the tube before putting it back together and you should not need to use any tools to get it back together. Ask someone at your local shop to show you how if you have any questions, if they get pissy, find somewhere else to drop your cash.
5. When you fix a flat make sure you find what caused it, and then keep looking. many times there is more than one thing, thorns are great for multiple punctures. One time I had about 100 goat heads in both tires while taking a 50' short cut to my car.

As far as flat prevention products,
Thorn resistant tubes, VERY heavy and don't work all that well. It will delay the flat but shit still works it way through.

Slime, when it works, it's great. round holes from thorns and nails are sealed and you will never know you got them. Cuts and jagged holes from glass and rocks rarely seal and you are stuck with a green mess that cannot be patched most of the time.

Mr. Tuffy, pain in the ass to install. Work ok on small thorns, glass etc. Can be punctured by nails etc. Will sometimes cause flats by cutting the tube if not running proper psi.

Kevlar, or other reinforced tires. Protection on par with tuffys but none of the drawbacks. Slight weight penalty over regular tires but not bad.

Oh ya, with a presta valve it's the air pressure that holds the air in, with schrader it's a spring tension. I prefer presta, less problems with leaking and easyer to pump.

I work at a shop too, and agree with everything Rockit said. I see a LOT of pinch flats. Check your pressure every ride! You don't have to use a gauge, just use one the first few times to get the feel for it. EVERY ride, lean on the tire to check pressure, then spin it to listen for rubbing brakes. Brakes rubbing on tires will put a nice hole in that $40 tire really fast.

A lot of how-to instructions for changing a flat say to pull the tube out while leaving the tire half on the rim. The problem with that is you can't check out the rim strip. Bad rim strips are probably another 25% of the flats.

I run tuffys and a thorn resistant tube in the rear. The combo is very heavy, but I don't race. The tuffys ward off thorns, and the tubes help prevent pinch flats. I always carry glueless patches (the bomb! especially once when I had a flat the tube of glue was dired out) and a new tube with me.