Tires made from orange oil, not petroleum

[Sven7]

Ok, I've had mine on for a few days and driven over a hundred miles on them. No tank refills yet. Changed from worn out no-name 175/70/13's on steelies to brand new 185/55/15 Avid Ascends on steelies.

First impressions are that they do seem to roll better and I can coast for a long time. It has been mentioned that they have good handling as well. They have decent road holding, but are not terribly responsive. Obviously they're not racing tires or anything, but I really beat the **** out of them in an open lot tonight and they seem competent. If you push them hard they lose traction gradually and are reasonably predictable. Come to think about it, they handle a lot like my skinnier no-name tires.

So, while you're not going to have a lot of fun driving these through the twisties, they also aren't going to let you careen into a ditch. Remember, just preliminary seat-of-the-pants review. Watch my fuel log in the future for any MPG changes.

Bottom line: Yes, would recommend for a hypermiler. But if you like to go racing on the weekends, buy a set of sport tires. I plan to buy some Falken Azenis RT-615's for the weekends.

PS- the 185/55/15's do have some sidewall bulge on 7" wheels. I would recommend 7.5" or even 8" wheels if you're concerned about aesthetics and fitment. The latter will probably stretch a tiny bit.

[oil pan 4]

I would always recommend buying a set of highway or touring tires for normal driving and a set of specialty tires and rims for what ever you do on the weekend.

There is nothing worse (or stupider) than wearing out a set of expensive mud tires every year by driving them on the highway for 99.99% of their life.

[101Volts]

I was looking at this one:

http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....5ASC&tab=Sizes

Is the rolling resistance coefficient known publicly? I asked a sales representative about it and she said she wasn't sure if that information is public.

[ecomodded]

I bet they smell real good, especially during a burnout.. like Mandarin oranges !

[California98Civic]

Subscribed.

[christofoo]

Add my $0.02 on the skeptical side (at least concerning the 'greenness' of the orange oil). Until Yokohama defines how much of the petroleum oil has been displaced by orange oil, and accounts for the energy required to extract the orange oil (and if only there was a certification for it), it might as well be snake oil, at least in terms of green production.

I can't even find the patent. Anyone?

I've read too many plugs like "vinegar is the greenest cleaner and disinfectant". (Hint: muriatic acid = vinegar x 100, but mostly just for cleaning hard water deposits.)

[Cobb]

Im thinking of pulling the trigger and getting a pair for my insight. They got a sale on them and a gift card too. I have had 2 sets of the avid envigors. Nice and grippy, some road noise on cement highways, great on wet or flooded surfaces.

Originally Posted by 101Volts

I was looking at this one:
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tires....5ASC&tab=Sizes

[oil pan 4]

Unfortunately they do not smell like oranges but when i order a set they do not stink up the house like a set of normal tires.

I wouldn't be too worried about the greenness of the tires.
They have to be greener than ethanol from corn and dont use food product to make the tires like the good year soy bean tires.

Since japan has no petroleum oil deposits making a petroleum oil free tire would be a pretty handy thing to know how to do.

[101Volts]

Question for those who have these tires: How has your fuel economy been effected? I also notice the PSI goes up to 51 in these which is helpful; The tires I have on the Caprice currently are rated for 35 max and since they're old I don't want to go much higher than that.

I've still been thinking of buying the P205/65R15s, And some of the reviews say they went bald earlier than the warranty covers. Well if they do and I buy them it's not a worry, Is it? I can just use the warranty as long as they're bald before I reach 65k or 75k miles at five years.

[oil pan 4]

When I replaced the warn out tires on the VW with these avid ascend tires I experienced almost no "new tire mpg drop".
They replaced a set of non-LRR Michelins that I ran till they were worn smooth.
Usually you lose up to 2 or 3 mpg on a car when replacing worn out tires with new ones. I think I lost 1 to 2 mpg for 2 fillups and it was back to normal, not that it ever went beyond the standard deviation.

On our other car we replaced OEM sized avid envigors, 2 at a time with avid ascends that were almost an inch taller. Eventually the MPGs turned out to be 2 to 3mpg better than ever before once we got all the tires switched to the larger LRR avid ascends.

The ultra high performance all season avid envigors were too much tire, they were real sticky and we were replacing a pair about every 20k to 30k miles, or about every 9 to 12 months.

The ascends are touring tires, have been on there for almost a year now and still look like they have all their tread.

These tires are going to last a really long time.