if you are just riding for fun and fitness and want a pretty nice bike at a low cost, that Allez steel is a very nice bike that has caught a lot of peoples eyes. Down the road you could certainly upgrade it to brifters. It's pretty much as everyone here has said, downtube shifters are cheap and durable. The only thing that nobody mentioned that is also nice is if you are running them in friction mode instead of indexed you can trim downtube shifters perfectly so no chain rattling around rubbing against the fd and fewer periodic deraileur adjustments.