BengeBoy 

I have down-tube shifters on two of my bikes, including the Univega commuter I ride every day. I grew up on down-tube shifters.

I associate stem shifters with low-end bikes and envision getting skewered on them.

I love bar end shifters - it's about a $100 worth of parts to change from drop bar shifters ($60 or $70 for the shifters; additional money for new cables, bar wrap, and little cable stop thingys that go in the downtube where the shifter braze-ons were).

As much as I like bar end shifters -- and even though I said I would change over my commuter immediately -- I can't quite bring myself to spend the $ to do it. The downtube shifters are working fine. Mine are some old Suntour shifters from the 80's and they have a beautiful, smooth machine finish that always feels *just right* when I use them - I hate to discard something that works so well.