Marin pine mountain penknife bike- gravel wheels and tyre recommendations please

I have a steel Marin pine mountain, which currently has 27.5 x 3 tyres and a 130mm fork on it. I use it for bikepacking and some general local trail bashing. I’d like to make it faster for road/gravel for winter, so am planning the following changes-

Hunt 29r xc wheel set, 26/28mm inner diameter

Something like 2.1 mezcal tyres

38 tooth chainring.

It came rigid so I’ll put the rigid fork back on.

Do we think these changes will make it a worthy of road/gravel or should I go even skinnier with the wheels and tyres? I’m a total road noob and have never owned a road/gravel bike.

If I remember that bike has quick release boost rear wheel which might limit wheel options. Is there definitely space for a 29r? I know my old whyte 905 wouldn’t.

All I can add is that Mezcals are fast off road. But there’s much faster on road tyres & treads. As ever, tyres are a set of compromises.

I put Mezcals on my Marin Nail Trail and revel in the light weight and nippyness, but they area still quite wide and a tread. My 50mm (1.9?) Continental Terra Hardpack fly along in comparison on hard trails and roads.

If I remember that bike has quick release boost rear wheel which might limit wheel options. Is there definitely space for a 29r? I know my old whyte 905 wouldn’t.

yeh its boost qr both ends, but hunt supply hub adapters for qr so it shouldn’t be an issue. There’s a fair bit of clearance with chunky 3.0 tyres so I assume 29×2.3ish should be ok too.

I put Mezcals on my Marin Nail Trail and revel in the light weight and nippyness, but they area still quite wide and a tread. My 50mm (1.9?) Continental Terra Hardpack fly along in comparison on hard trails and roads.

This is the kind of info I’m after. Hunt say of the XC wide rims;

“Tyre size: Optimized for 2.2″ to 2.4″ tyres; work well with 2.0″ up to 2.6″ tyres.”

Are there any recommended faster rolling tyres that would sit on those rims and have reasonable performance on road/gravel?

It would be nice to have the 29×2 for winter road/gravel, be able to chuck on a set of 29×2.3 xc tyres for light trail bikepacking duties and have the 27.5×3 for when things get rougher.

A pair of 2.8 Schwalbe G-Ones will make road riding a lot nicer without having to buy a new wheel set. You’ll probably want a bigger chainring and smaller range cassette to put on as well!

There’s some cheap Teravails around at the moment

https://advntr.cc/teravail-sparwood/

A pair of 2.8 Schwalbe G-Ones will make road riding a lot nicer without having to buy a new wheel set. You’ll probably want a bigger chainring and smaller range cassette to put on as well!

I’ve gone down this route, thanks for the recommendation! Mush less spendy than a new wheelset.

I’ve got a set of Continental Terra Hardpack tyres on my rigid Swift. They’re light & really good on tarmac and I’d imagine that they’d cope admirably on many non-sloppy gravel surfaces.

They only come in 650bx50 or 700×50 (I do wish they’d do a 700×40) but I can’t think that you’d need anything wider if (like me) you’re mostly road based.

https://www.conti-tyres.co.uk/gravel/terra-hardpack