Continental went from three plies to two when it replaced the GP5000 TL, and that single change explains most of what is different about the Grand Prix 5000 S TR. The old tubeless casing carried a butyl inner liner that let it hold air without sealant, and it paid for that in weight. Dropping the liner and restructuring the carcass took roughly 50 grams per tire out of the 700x25 size. The tradeoff is that this is a tubeless-ready tire now rather than a full tubeless one, so sealant is part of the setup instead of an optional extra.

BlackChili handles the rubber side. Continental mixes the compound tire by tire rather than running one formulation across the range, and the version here is tuned for the balance between grip, rolling speed and tread life that a race-and-train tire needs. Lazer Grip siping covers the shoulders, laser-etched grooves fine enough that you have to look for them, adding biting edges right where the tire loads up mid-corner. Under the tread sits the Vectran breaker, a liquid crystal polymer layer that resists penetration without the stiffness penalty a nylon belt carries. Active Comfort Technology adds an elastomer layer in the casing to damp road buzz before it reaches your hands.

Hookless approval was the headline at launch, and it comes with a hard ceiling: 73 psi maximum on hookless rims, every size, no exceptions. Hooked rims allow more in the smaller sizes, 109 psi for the 700x25 and 94 psi for the 700x28, but the 700x30 and 700x32 are capped at 73 psi regardless of rim type. Check the figure printed on the packaging before you inflate, because riders have blown these off rims by treating the hooked number as universal. Continental also publishes a maximum inner rim width per size, and the 700x25 tops out at 21mm, which rules it out on the widest current road rims.... Read More