I live in a wet area and disc brakes are awesome. Even if I lived in a dry area I would still go with them because of the increased stopping power. I might be a bit of a Luddite but I prefer my cable actuated Avid BB7s over the hydraulic Avid Juicy 5s for feel and stopping power.
I haven't owned a Trek for about a year but it was a well built bike. My Gary Fisher mtb is technically a Trek and there have been problems with the frames and rear triangles of that model. I haven't heard of a single person who wasn't able to get their frames replaced by Trek. They seem to take customer service pretty seriously.
This made me smile.
I have back problems, so I find it considerably more comfortable to ride a recumbent.
I don't have any problems that keep me from riding a "regular" bike but I own two recumbents myself. They are fun to ride. A lot of fun to ride. If you live near a recumbent shop that will let you rent or test ride bikes I would recommend trying at least a short wheel base and a long wheel base 'bent. You can also go to Bentrider Online to read about them if you are interested.
I own 4 bikes, a full suspension MTB, a Bianchi road bike and two recumbents. Now that my quad is living in a storage unit I have room to buy another recumbent, maybe a RANS lwb or a Tour Easy.
edit: sumpnz, I'm not smiling about your back problems, I was thinking about my nice cushy recumbent seats compared to either of my "wedgie" bikes.