Hi everyone,
I am interested in buying a 2010 Trek Portland. I wish to use the bike for commuting, grocery shopping using panniers, & light touring using a combination of rear panniers & a trailer. The only parts of the bike that I see as unsuitable for these activities are the wheels & tires. The “stock” wheels are Bontrager SSR Disc & the tires are Bontrager Race All Weather Hard-Case, 700x28c. The spokes on the wheels & the tires seem insufficient in number to hold heavy weight on the bike’s rear.

My LBS is willing to swap out the tires for Bontrager tires for Bontrager 700 X 32s. I would like to get sturdy touring type wheels on the bike. They say that they could custom build wheels for the bike but the cost would be high – perhaps $500 for wheel. They state that the Portland’s use of disc brakes limits my choices for sturdy, factory-built wheels. Are there other options for heavy duty wheels that they or I are overlooking? Might I be better off just buying a touring bike for the uses I want? Please let me know your recommendations.
Thanks,
Neil

Getting away from low spoke count fashion wheels is a good Idea, you need a disc hub and a touring width rim,
ones around an inch wide Sun CR18 a good long made favorite.

A 29er wheel is a 700c rim with disc hubs , maybe there is one of those in the shops wholesale catalogs ?

machine built wheels all need hand work once they arrive.
if you don't have wheel truing skills you need the shop's guys to do that.

Nope. Don't buy those. They have 135mm hubs. The Portland is 130mm between the dropouts.

I had a set built last year for my Portland using Velocity's rear disk road hub, Shimano Alfine dynamo hub in front, Velocity VXC disk-specific hoops and 32 DT Competition spokes. Including labor, the pair was $615 at my LBS.

I also recommend upgrading the rotors. The stock Avid Roundagons are prone to warping. When I did the new wheels I used Avid G3 rotors, front (centerlock) and rear (ISO six-bolt). They have 12 "spokes" instead of the usual six, and they're stainless so they stay sparkly.

Pics and specs here.

BTW, I have three years and over 11,000 miles on my Portland, and still love every ride on it. I use it daily for the same sorts of things you're planning. My favorite thing about the bike is that it still hauls when it hauls--your motor may vary.

Why not just wait to see if there is a problem with the wheels before buying or building another pair? However it is your money so spend away.

Exile makes a good point.

These are new wheels for 2011. The ones on the 2006-10 bikes were absolute garbage. The stock tires outlasted TWO sets of the old wheels on my bike. Maybe Trek listened.

You might as well ride the stock wheels until they fall apart. Could be that they won't.

MAVIC SpeedCity wheels
my mistake... 135mm spacing... forget it

Thanks everyone for your recommendations!