Originally Posted by
Mr. Embrey
I think it's more to do with on the road serviceability/repairibility more than durability anymore. You can just take along an extra set of old down tube shifters and make repairs or swap easily if needed.
When I first started on this forum, one of the arguments for bar end shifters is that you could switch from indexing to friction with a twist of the tension knob. You may want to do this in the event of a malfunction of the indexing. Where with a brifter malfunction, there isn't a friction mode so you may be stuck in a single rear cog until the brighter is repaired or replaced. One solution to the brifter malfunction is to bring a pair of downtube shifters for emergencies but this requires that the bike frame has the proper braze-ons for the downtube shifters (the lth and 520 have the braze-ons), otherwise you will need an old style downtube shifter clamp.
The benefit of bar-end shifters over downtube shifters is that there are times when you need to shift but want to keep both hands on the handlebars.
I like brifters on my touring bike, I haven't had problems with my brifters and I don't plan on doing any remote touring where I am too far from getting help for a breakdown.
I have noticed that when I rode my older road bike that has downtube shifters, that I shifted much less than when I use my bike with brifters.