A pneumatic tire includes a carcass ply that is wound up around a bead core from an inside to an outside in a tire axial direction; an inner metal reinforcing layer and an outer metal reinforcing layer that are wound up on an outside of the carcass ply from the inside to the outside in the tire axial direction; and a buffer layer that is provided between the inner metal reinforcing layer and the outer metal reinforcing layer, and is wound up from the inside to the outside in the tire axial direction. The buffer layer includes a rubber having a higher hardness than those of a carcass rubber configuring the carcass ply and a covering rubber configuring the inner metal reinforcing layer and the outer metal reinforcing layer.

Tire including: a tread; a pair of sidewalls extending substantially inward radially from ends of the tread; a pair of beads positioned substantially radially inwardly of the sidewalls; and a clinch portion extending from the sidewalls to the beads. A concave curved surface extends on an outer surface of the clinch portion in a circumferential direction. A convex curved surface formed on a radially outer side end of a rim flange is engageable with the concave curved surface. A ratio R1/R of curvature radius R1 of the concave curved surface to a curvature radius R of the convex curved surface of the rim flange satisfies 1.7R1/R2.5. The curvature radii R1 and R of the concave and convex curved surfaces, respectively, are each a radius of curvature of an arc on a cross-section taken along a plane including a tire center axis.

A pneumatic tire includes an up ply, a down ply, and a cord reinforcing layer. The up ply has: a main body section and a wound section. The down ply is provided on a tire outer surface side of the up ply. The cord reinforcing layer is provided from the inner side to the outer side in the tire axial direction of the bead core to cover the up ply, and has reinforcing cords. A tip of the wound section is located outward in a tire radial direction from a rim flange. An outer end in the tire axial direction of the cord reinforcing layer is located outward in the tire radial direction from a bead upper line and inward in the tire radial direction from the rim flange. The bead upper line extends from an outer surface in the tire radial direction of the bead core.

A pneumatic tire 1 comprises a carcass 6 comprising a carcass ply (6A) comprising a main body portion (6a) and turned up portions (6b), and bead apex rubbers 8. Each of the bead apex rubbers 8 comprises a first rubber portion 10 and a second rubber portion 11 provided on an outer side in a tire axial direction of the first rubber portion and having smaller rubber hardness than the first rubber portion. A ratio H1/H2 of a height (H1) of an outer end (10e) in a tire radial direction of the first rubber portion 10 from a bead base line (BL) and a height (H2) of an outer end in the tire radial direction of each of the turned up portions (6b) from the bead base line (BL) is in a range of from 1.4 to 1.7.

A tire includes a carcass, and a wire chafer disposed on an outer circumference of the carcass. A reinforcement rubber layer having a lower elastic modulus than that of a coating rubber included in the carcass and/or that of a coating rubber included in the wire chafer, is arranged between the carcass and the wire chafer. In an area where the reinforcement rubber layer is arranged, the rotational angle around a bead core to outward in the tire width direction falls within at least a portion of the range of 45 to 90 with reference to a straight line which extends inward in the tire radial direction from the center of the bead core, which is orthogonal to the tire width direction, and which intersects with the wire chafer.

A tire 2 includes a tie gum 24 between a carcass 12 and each chafer 22. In the tire 2, an inner liner 20 is formed from a thermoplastic elastomer composition including a styrene-isobutylene-styrene block copolymer. The inner liner 20 has a thickness of not greater than 1.5 mm. The tie gum 24 joins the inner liner 20 and the chafer 22 and has a volume resistivity of not greater than 10.sup.8 .Math.cm.

A tire inspection method includes: capturing a transmission image of a tire including a steel chafer at a bead portion; generating an image at an inspection device from the captured image of a full revolution of the tire with the steel chafer portions extracted using a spatial filter generated in accordance with an incline of the wires of the steel chafer; detecting a locus of a front side edge and a back side edge of the steel chafer; generating an image from the captured image with the steel chafer portions removed; detecting a locus of a turned-up edge of a carcass from this image; and determining at the inspection device the position of the carcass to be appropriate or not on the basis of the locus of the turned-up edge of the carcass.

A tire manufacturing method includes making a master batch, using the master batch to make a rubber composition, and making a green tire. The master batch is made wherein a carbon-black-containing pre-coagulation rubber latex is coagulated to obtain a coagulum; a compound according to Formula (I) is added to the water-containing coagulum;

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wherein R.sup.1 and R.sup.2 each indicates a hydrogen atom, an alkyl group having 1 to 20 carbons, an alkenyl group having 1 to 20 carbons, or an alkynyl group having 1 to 20 carbons, R.sup.1 and R.sup.2 may be the same or different, and M.sup.+ indicates sodium ion, potassium ion, or lithium ion; and the compound according to Formula (I) is dispersed within the coagulum. The green tire is provided with unvulcanized rubber sheeting made up of the rubber composition, chafer(s), carcass ply or plies, and bead filler(s).

A motorcycle tire that includes a carcass as a skeleton composed of at least one carcass ply extending toroidally between a pair of bead portions and folded and engaged around a pair of bead cores embedded in each of the pair of bead portions and a belt composed of at least one belt layer arranged on the outer side of the carcass in the tire radial direction. A flipper is arranged between the carcass and a bead core, which wraps the bead core from the inside in the tire radial direction, and the outer side end portion of the flipper in the tire width direction extends to the inside in the tire width direction from the end portion of the belt in the tire width direction.

The present invention provides a tire having improved bead endurance in which cords of a steel chafer are waved and the advancing direction of the waves of the steel chafer is perpendicular to the advancing direction of carcass cords, thereby minimizing cracks at an edge of the carcass. The tire having a chafer structure for enhancing bead endurance includes: a carcass having carcass cords; and a steel chafer covering the carcass and having a plurality of waved chafer cords.