Provided is a pneumatic tire with a surface provided with a reflective layer that reflects light, the reflective layer including a transparent globule group composed of transparent globules. At least some of the transparent globules are each configured to reflect incident light incident into the transparent globule from outside, at an interface with the outside of the transparent globule, and to emit the light to the outside of the transparent globule as reflected light. The transparent globules are each configured to cause the reflected light to include more amount of non-retroreflected light than retroreflected light, the non-retroreflected light moving further away from an optical path of the incident light according to a distance from the transparent globules, being increased. The transparent globules each have an optical path of the non-retroreflected light with an angle difference of from 2.0 degrees to 2.5 degrees from the optical path of the incident light.

A radial tire (10), with the sidewalls thereof (20), and the tread thereof (30) arranged for minimizing the temperature of the tire while guaranteeing its electrical conductivity. The tread (30) comprises two wings (311, 312) and a central portion (32). These components rest on a base layer (33) radially on the inside of the tread (30). The base layer (33) contains a lateral portion (331, 332) partly in contact with a tread wing (311, 312). This structure of the crown of the tire, in contact with the carcass reinforcement makes it possible to constitute a preferential conductive pathway of the electric charges between the rim and the ground when the tire is mounted on its rim and flattened on the ground.

The present invention is directed to a tire comprising a tread, two sidewalls, a carcass and at least two belts arranged radially between the carcass and the tread in a crown area of the tire. The tread has at least one axially outer edge portion covering the axially outermost edge of at least one of the belts and comprising a different rubber composition than a portion of the tread neighboring the axially outer edge portion of the tread. Furthermore, one of the sidewalls at least partially covers and contacts the axially outer surface of the axially outer edge portion of the tread.

A tire 22 includes a plurality of ribs 68 aligned in an axial direction. A rib 68s, among the plurality of ribs 68, disposed on an outer side in the axial direction is sectioned into a body portion 74 and a side portion 76 by a groove 72 that extends in a circumferential direction. The tire 22 includes a tread 26 and a pair of sidewalls 28. The sidewalls 28 extend almost inward from ends, respectively, of the tread 26 in a radial direction. The tread 26 includes a base layer 52, and a cap layer 54 disposed outward of the base layer 52 in the radial direction. The side portion 76 is formed by the cap layer 54 and a corresponding one of the sidewalls 28. The sidewall 28 is stacked on the cap layer 54 in the side portion 76.

A pneumatic tire manufacturing method is provided in which raw cover molding is suitably performed with no, or a minimal amount of, down-stitching in the manufacture of SOT-structure pneumatic tires; also provided is a pneumatic tire. This pneumatic tire manufacturing method involves a first cover molding step for molding a first cover having a sidewall, an inner lining, a ply, beads and a tread-side edge, a tread ring forming step for forming a tread ring having a breaker, a band and a tread center part, a shaping step for pressure-bonding the tread ring and the first cover to mold this to the shape of the raw cover, and a turn-up step for bonding the side wall to the lateral surface of the first cover, wherein the tread-side edge is formed in a position adjacent to the end of the tread center portion in the shaping step, and in the turn-up step, the tread-side edge and the tread center part are bonded together.

The present invention relates to a tire (100) for vehicle wheels comprising a tire component comprising a crosslinked elastomeric material obtained by crosslinking a crosslinkable elastomeric composition, wherein said elastomeric composition comprises a polymer blend comprising (a) 50 to 95 percent by weight of a first elastomeric polymer and (b) 5 to 50 percent by weight of a second elastomeric polymer based on the total weight of the polymer blend. The second elastomeric polymer (b) is obtainable by (i) anionic polymerization of at least one conjugated diene monomer and one or more a-olefin monomer(s) in the presence of a polymerization initiator in an organic solvent, and (ii) coupling the polymer chains obtained in (i) by a coupling agent. The second elastomeric polymer (b) has a weight-average molecular weight (Mw) in the range of 5,000-40,000 g/mol and a coupling rate of at least 50 percent by weight.

A heavy duty pneumatic tire 1 has provided in a buttress region 10 thereof a protrusion 11 extending in the tire circumferential direction. In a tire meridian cross-section, the maximum protrusion height h.sub.max of the protrusion 11 from an imaginary buttress surface J is 3.0 mm or greater and is in the range of 0.025-0.050 times a half tread width Wt. The cross-sectional area Sa of the protrusion 11 protruding from the imaginary buttress surface J is 20 mm.sup.2 or greater.

In a tire 12, a tread 14 includes a tread main body 44 and edge portions 46. A wear resistance index of each edge portion 46 obtained according to JIS K6264-2 is higher than that of the tread main body 44. An outer surface S of the tire 12 includes a tread surface ST, a pair of shoulder surfaces SH connected to the tread surface ST, and a pair of side surfaces SW connected to the shoulder surfaces SH. Each shoulder surface SH includes an outer surface formed by the edge portion 46, and a contour of each shoulder surface SH is represented by a circular arc having a center at an inner side.

A pneumatic vehicle tire has a nominal tire cross-sectional height H of at most 110 mm, bead regions with bead cores, a radial carcass which runs around the bead cores in the bead regions axially on the inside to axially on the outside forming carcass turn-ups, and side wall regions, which each have a wing profile and a side wall profile. The wing profiles are the only rubber components extending in contact with the radial carcass in the radially outer region of the side wall region. The carcass turn-ups end at a radial height (h.sub.1), determined from a base line, of 15 mm to 65 mm. At least in a region between a radial height (h.sub.2) of 29% of the nominal side wall height and a radial height (h.sub.3) of at least 80% of the height H, the wing profiles are the only rubber components that extend outside the radial carcass.

A heavy duty pneumatic tire 1 has provided in a buttress region 10 thereof a protrusion 11 extending in the tire circumferential direction. In a tire meridian cross-section, the maximum protrusion height h.sub.max of the protrusion 11 from an imaginary buttress surface J is 3.0 mm or greater and is in the range of 0.025-0.050 times a half tread width Wt. The cross-sectional area Sa of the protrusion 11 protruding from the imaginary buttress surface J is 20 mm.sup.2 or greater.