Patent ID: 8333226

Claim:
A pneumatic tire comprising: a tread portion provided with circumferential grooves extending continuously in the circumferential direction of the tire and axial grooves joining the circumferential grooves, said circumferential grooves including a wavy circumferential groove, and said axial grooves including first axial grooves joining the wavy circumferential groove so that at the junction of each of the first axial grooves with the wavy circumferential groove, an acute-angled corner is formed between the first axial groove and the wavy circumferential groove, and at said junction of each of the first axial grooves, the first axial groove has a toe-side edge intersecting a junction-side side edge of the wavy circumferential groove at a first intersecting point (P 1 ), and a heel-side edge intersecting said junction-side side edge at a third intersecting point (P 3 ), wherein the first intersecting point (P 1 ) is positioned between a second intersecting point (P 2 ) and one of junction-side maximum amplitude points (RLO) which is positioned adjacently to the second intersecting point (P 2 ) on the heel-side, the second intersecting point (P 2 ) is an intersecting point between said junction-side side edge and one of maximally-inclined tangents (Ka), the maximally-inclined tangents (Ka) are tangents to an opposite-of-junction-side side edge of the wavy circumferential groove which are inclined, with respect to the circumferential direction, maximally to the junction-side side edge towards the toe-side, said junction-side maximum amplitude points (RLO) are points on the junction-side side edge at which the junction-side side edge protrudes maximally towards the junction-side, and said third intersecting point (P 3 ) is positioned between the second intersecting point (P 2 ) and the junction-side maximum amplitude point (RLO), wherein said junction-side side edge and said opposite-of-junction-side side edge of the wavy circumferential groove are each formed by a curved line and are substantially parallel with each other, and there is no groove extending from the junction-side edge other than the first axial grooves which extends axially outwardly to the tread edge while inclining to one circumferential direction at an inclination angle (α) with respect to the tire circumferential direction, which angle (α) increases as the axial distance from the wavy circumferential groove is increased, so that the first axial grooves are curved.