Fixing the old bike

Learning along the way. I read as much as I can before I do something, but there's always some little thing you haven't seen because you haven't anticipated it.

So I researched wheels and bought some. Emphasis on light as had I stopped using the old bike because it was a little heavy (lovely steel frame). Established that I needed to get a new cassette as the old gearing is a freewheel. A shame because the freewheel is in reasonable shape. So about to go out and buy a cassette and chain - just poking about reading some stuff online. Will probably get as close as possible to what was previously there as the rest of the gear (chainset and derailleur) look fine.

Anyway ... I end up on the website of the wheels (Fulcrum Racing 5) and realise they have a pdf "owners manual" so I d/l for a read. In small print somewhere on the broadsheet multilanguaged pdf it says - "before fitting tires check that the diameter indicated on the tire is 622 and that cross section is between 23 and 25 mm." Oh really ....

Now the previous rims (Velocity) which LOOK the same width (dunno the bead width) used to take 32 and 35mm tires. BUT I had a spare pair of Continental Ultragatorskins that I decided to put on the rims that were 622-28. Also coz they're lighter.

The Rim-Tire compatibility section goes on to say if a tire is too easy to put on it's too big, if it's too difficult, it's too small. Now while I had a bit of a struggle putting the tires on, it was by no means too hard. Harder than the contis on my Kona but they went on without too much grief.

My question to the knowledgeable and experienced reading this .... am I going to risk "unexpected tire failure, resulting in accident, personal injury or death" if l leave the 622-28's on the rim? What should I look for to make sure that the tires LOOK like they're NOT fitting properly? I really don't want to put on 23 or 25's. Would rather sell the rims and go back to square one.

Why don't they put these sort of specs in obvious places when you're buying a wheelset/rim? The closest advice in the advert for the wheel from where I bought it was # Rim: Aluminium - 28". which is just the diameter of the rim.