Road bike tire review: Bontrager R3 700x25 clincher (but, is it really 25mm wide?!)

I recently purchased a Bontrager R3 700x25 tire, moving up in width from Bontrager R3 700x23. The main reason was that I was looking for more comfort, for my 100kg weight. The 23mm width felt too sensitive to shocks and road vibrations, so much, that I was feeling as if I was slowing down instead of going faster. The 25mm width seemed logical to compensate this problem.

I have been using the R3 700x23 for about 18 months, with only 1 puncture (rear tire) and that was due to my fault hitting hard inside a road hole. Compared to R2, the R3, feels 'softer', faster, more responsive. I wanted a 25mm wide tire though, to give me some extra comfort.

I normally inflate the front R3 with 105-108psi and the rear R3 with 112-115. Sometimes, I might take 2-3 psi away from both tires to boost comfort, but I can observe a noticable reduction in top speed and acceleration.

On my new R3 700x25 setup, I did this test: Front wheel remained at 700x23, rear R3 wheel now gone from 700x23 to 700x25. Upon inflating both tires at the same pressure (115psi) for testing purposes: To measure tire width in order to double check manufacturers specifications. I noticed something weird, which I didn't see before in any tire: To my surprise my findings were the following:
Front tire width: 23.6mm (instead of 23mm)
Rear tire width: 24.3mm (instead of 25mm)


BIKE SETUP FOR MEASUREMENT:

Fulcrum Racing 5 Road Bike Wheels (2014): TWO broken spokes within 8 months of purchase.

Well, no equipment is perfect and failures can happen to anyone anytime, regardless of how expensive or cheap is the product.

I had my first broken spoke ever about 3 months ago. I have been into cycling since 2010 and I have changed several wheelsets since then: From Alex Rims, into Shimano, into Pro Lite and then into Fulrcum. I bought my first ever Fulcrum wheels in Dec. 2013, after shop's recommendations and friends' suggestions.

But, about 6 months after purchase a Fulcrum rear wheel spoke broke. At the worst place and time: During a 200km Brevet cycle race with about 50km to go when I also had a good ranking (within top 40 out of about 200 cyclists).

I was left in the middle of nowhere with the sun burning on top of my head at 36+ degrees in a very remote location (50km outside Theva, Greece). I was very lucky to have a race support car picking me up, as it was left to the athletes to deal with their emergencies according to race regulations. It was the first time I realised how a broken spoke sounds.. and the flatness your mind receives when it realizes that you no longer can pedal. My rear wheel lost its symmetry. It went into an 'egg' shape. I tried to open the rear break as much as possible, but still nothing. THAT spoke was fatal. I had to quit the race.

After the repair, the bike shop assumed that these things happen to everyone and it's normal. I accepted this.

4 weeks ago and about 2 months after the first ever spoke breakage on the Racing 5 wheels, another spoke on the same rear wheel broke. Again.