Pneumatic radial tire shoulder structure

A pneumatic radial tire of the type including a carcass ply, a tread, a shoulder portion formed at each axially spaced side outside a ground-contacting axial end portion of said tread and extending circumferentially around said tire and at least two belt layers capable of functioning as a pair of tension members between said carcass ply and said tread, wherein the improvement comprises:

• each of said shoulder portions including at least two steps between said tread and a sidewall of the tire and a plurality of notched angular recesses in an axially outer end portion of each step and extending circumferentially around the tire with the apex of each notched angular recess pointing toward said tread and the sides of each recess each respectively intersecting with the side of an adjacent recess;
• the axial width of the radially outer one of said two belt layers is 0.95 to 1.05 times the axial width of the tread when the tire is new;
• said tread includes at least one main groove having a depth D and the height, B.sub.1, of the side of a first step of said steps which abuts said tread is 35 to 65% of the depth, D, of the main groove;
• the axial length, F, of the surface of each of said steps which abut said tread is 0.03 to 0.06 times the width of the tread when the tire is new;
• the axial depth of each recess in each step is 0.6 to 0.8 times the axial length, F, of each step surface;
• the width, H, of each said recess in each step measured in a circumferential direction of the tire is 0.10 to 1.0 times the axial length, E, of said recess;
• the height, G, of said recesses disposed in the axially outer end portion of a step surface abutting said tread is coextensive with the height of the axially outer step;
• the side of each of said steps is sloped outwardly at an angle between 0.degree. and 20.degree. relative to a line parallel to the midcircumferential plane of the tire;
• and
• the overall height, B, of said two steps in each of said shoulder portions has the following relationship with the depth, D, of said main groove:
• D-1.6 mm.ltoreq.B.ltoreq.D+3.0 mm.