↑This is a well-used
Continental Grand Prix 5000
in Black/Transparent colorway.

Regarding the tire sidewall color, the reason it's called
Transparent (clear) rather than Brown is that

the tire sidewall consists only of casing not covered by rubber,
and when held up to light, you can see the text
from inside the tire showing through to the outside.

I've written about this before,
but this isn't just a matter of a color difference—
the fundamental properties of the tire are different.
Starting with weight, the lower range of Black
barely overlaps with the upper range
of Transparent.
At 25C width, a Transparent tire at 232g is possible,
but a Black tire at 219g is quite rare.
Incidentally, the 25C tire in the image above is destined for disposal,
and when I weighed it, it came in at 209g.
I suspect it's lost some weight due to wear.

The other difference is the flexibility of the sidewall—
Transparent offers better ride quality,
especially at lower pressures and
when running latex tubes (and I don't think I'm imagining this),
plus it seems to have a higher cornering limit.
On the flip side, it's definitely more susceptible
to cuts on the sidewall.

If you can tolerate that risk
and don't mind brown tire sidewalls,
I'd recommend Transparent.

Now, there's also a tubeless tire
called Transparent,
but I question whether the sidewall is truly
only casing and can actually hold
a tubeless setup.


↑Grand Prix 5000 Tubed tire


↑Grand Prix 5000 S TR
Tubeless tire
Both are new, but the tubed tire has a thin, supple feel
that the tubeless tire lacks.
Also, the bead area on the inner edge of the tire sidewall
is completely covered in rubber on the tubeless tire,
which is another difference.


As expected, the inside of the casing is covered in rubber.
So the tubeless Transparent is not a specification difference—
it's just what they call it.
Since the outside exposes the casing, it would be slightly lighter
and if you prefer brown sidewalls, that's really
the only practical difference worth choosing it for.


↑This is from when I tested SRAM Quarq up on Rokko in the rain,
and I noticed that Transparent tires fade in color
when exposed to water for extended periods,
except for the text outlines.
Though they mostly return to normal once they dry.