Originally Posted by sevrdhed

I should preface this by saying that it's possible I don't have enough information about my derailleur and gears for you guys to answer this. So, the bike that I've mentioned I just bought (Old fuji 12speed if you haven't read any of my other threads) currently has the down tube style shift levers. This has made it fairly difficult for me to shift, since I've never tried this kind of shifter before, and I have to take my hand off the handlebar to shift.

The question is, how hard would it be to replace those crappy down-tube shift levers with some brifters. (I'm pretty sure that's what they're called.) Is it something that's worth looking into doing myself, or would it be a job for a non-beginner? Or, should I just stop being a pansy, suck it up, and learn to shift from the downtube?