I'm not worried about sticking big MTB tyres on (1.8 is fine)
but need them to be able to take a skinny road tyre (25mm).

Velocity seem to have some options.
Possibly the A23…

Cheers

open sport or touring rims were (are?) a populr 29er choice.

EDIt 717s (17c)(26" only though) are ok for 25c tyres. open sport are 15c.

I'd have thought other manufacturers have similar recomendations.

Yeah the Open sport footprint looked wide enough to handle some MTB tyres.

I was also looking at the Velocity Dyad, but am not sure they would handle 25mm tyres.

I've had road tyres on my DT x470's with no problems

I need them for a kind of secondary 29er wheelset that will mainly used on road but will be tough enough and wider enough to accommodate some XCish tyres. Just a bit bigger than a cross tyre.

For some reason going the "Hybrid" route makes me wanna vomit so I guess I'm looking something a bit different. And thats why I was looking at Velocity.

lol.

i'm looking for something similar atm. although i want to be able to mount proper tyres 2.4. but i's happily run 32cs on road instead of a 25c.

thinking about the mavic tn719.

Hmmm Mavic TN719. Says recommended min tyre width 1.5cm.
Can you fit 25mm on there?

I have Mavic A719 on the tourer, will take 23mm but not ideal TBH, will go upto 2" but wouldnt go bigger or your going to get horrible tyre roll.

If you only want 23mm to 45mm open sport or open pro will be fine, used pro's for cyclocross with 45's a few times with no problem.

Are you putting the wheels on a "real" road bike? Just wondering why you really need to go as low as 25mm. There are plenty of fast 28mm available (conti 4 season for example) that would be fine. Do you need a braking surface?

Salsa Delgado would work nicely as 28mm – maybe 1.95inch.