Patent ID: 8302645

Claim:
A pneumatic tire with main grooves extending in the tire circumferential direction formed in a tread, wherein at least one main groove is provided with a plurality of oblong holes which begin at a distance above the main groove bottom, none of which oblong holes abut or are open at the ground surface of the tread, and which extend lengthwise in a tire radial direction of the main groove in both sidewalls of the main groove and further wherein there are provided communication grooves in both sidewalls, none of which communication grooves abut or are open at the ground surface of the tread, and which extend diagonally with respect to the tread surface to communicate with the oblong holes, a width w 1 and a depth d 1 of the oblong holes are at least not less than 0.2 mm and 0.01 to 0.25 times a width W of the main groove, a height h of the oblong holes in the depth direction of the main groove is 50 to 80% of a depth D of the main groove, a space p 1 between adjacent oblong holes is at least not less than 0.4 mm and 0.04 to 1.0 times the width W of the main groove, a width w 2 and a depth d 2 of the communication grooves are at least not less than 0.2 mm and 0.01 to 0.25 times the width W of the main groove, and two or more communication grooves are present within the contact ground length L of the main groove.