Abstract:
A pneumatic bicycle tire to be operated with an inner tube includes a tread and two sidewalls. A bead is connected to a free end of each one of the sidewalls for mounting the tire on a wheel rim with rim flanges having a maximum standard height limit. Each bead has a bead core. A carcass is embedded in the tire and extends between the beads, wherein free ends of the carcass are wound about the beads. The carcass includes at least one ply. A padding strip is embedded in each sidewall in the vicinity of the beads. The padding strip is positioned along a curved section of the sidewall. The curved section begins at a center of the bead core and has a length equal to 40% to 210% of the maximum standard height limit. The padding strip has a hardness of between 40 and 60 Shore A, a rebound resilience of below 80% measured at a frequency of 2,000 Hz, and a thickness of at least 0.6 mm.
Abstract:
A novel construction for locally strengthened tire flaps made of rubber and having circumferentially uniform cross-sectional characteristics is disclosed, together with a method of producing such flaps. In the preferred form of the invention, the major portion of the flap is made of a standard soft rubber stock, while the remaining minor portion of the flap, in which the valve-stem-accommodating hole is provided, is made of a different rubber stock having, when cured, a greater hardness and resistance to distortion or tearing stresses than the standard rubber stock. The flap is produced by splicing the two ends of an appropriately short length of the raw hard rubber stock to the respective ends of an appropriately longer strip of the raw soft rubber stock, thereby forming a ring, and then introducing the ring into any suitable annular mold, e.g. a compression mold, for final shaping and curing by which the two rubber sections are vulcanized into an integral continuous structure.