After a somewhat oblivious spell, it has occurred to me that I might be courting disaster.

I recently replaced the tires on my Mercian, which sports a wheel set I really enjoy: 700c 36h Mavic G 40 clinchers laced to Record hubs.

The 700x23 Vredestein Fotezza tires I put on are rated to 160psi. I've been inflating them to ~150 or so. They roll great; very very nice riding tire.

However, I seem to recall some manufacturers listing max recommended inflation for tires on their rims...looked it up, and Mavic recommends no greater than 138psi on their contemporary road rims for a 23mm tire (varies by tire size, of course, but mine are 700x23s).

More reassuringly, I stumbled across a thread in which one poster was told by Velocity that "whatever the tires can take, they'll fail before the rims." In passing, I might note that I'm ~250lbs, which means that my rims do not get an easy ride on the best of days - though this bike is never ridden over-aggressively, or at least is being babied since I recently completed an overhaul.

Did some searching, and not so much discussion of this issue with regard to 'vintage' rims, except in the context of non-hooked rims (not my problem). Even with regard to contemporary rims, I didn't get a very clear sense of consensus.

Anyone have any relevant experience, knowledge or ideas here?

I love these tires at 150, but don't want to do any lasting damage (or invite major catastrophe) by being negligent in my attention to this issue...