At least 5 years ago I started my cycling commuting career in Berlin by buying a beautifully restored steel road bike from my than roommate. I was not at all experienced with road bike. All my live I had been commuting via bike a lot, however, it has always been a "Hollandrad" (dutch bicycle). Wide low pressure tires, a single gear and a comfy seat and handlebars. Seeing more and more people overtaking me in the city with vintage road bikes my interests was sparked.

There was one thing I've learned in my first week of having a vintage road bike which still sticks to me like glue. In the first week I had at least 2-3 flat tires. The first was fun because I learned how easy it is to fix on a road bike compared to a dutch bike. Nevertheless, already after the second it felt like a mistake using such a bike in the city of Berlin.

Fortunately my roommate was a bike enthusiast and recommended me to change the tire. I don't remember explicitly what model of tire I was riding but I know for sure it were "Schwalbe" tires. I can't say nothing bad about the brand and I maybe just riding a not very puncture protected model back than but my fried recommended me Continental tires. Specifically the Continental Grand Prix 4000 S II [1]. What a long unhandy name. Nonetheless, I was riding these ever since and just had 1 flat tire in 2 years.

By today there is a new version the Grand Prix 5000 [2]. And I can still highly recommend these tires. I recently upgraded my tires on my commuter road bike to these. Not because they don't work properly anymore, but because of safety reasons as the rubber hardens over time. Before changing the tires I was astounded how many small rocks and cuts the tire withstood without a puncture.

https://s3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com/secure.notion-static.com/d0bd4db0-2cb4-4947-83f1-44121d83a475/IMG_6574.mov

[1] https://www.continental-reifen.de/fahrrad/reifen/rennrad/grand-prix-4000-s2-tubular

[2] https://www.continental-reifen.de/fahrrad/reifen/rennrad/grand-prix-5000