Custom Oak Cycles 650B French Randonneur Project.

Why? Never had any, but I always wanted to have them on a bike one day, what should stop me?

Really?

I was pleasantly surprised by how easy and direct they feel. I makes me wonder why downtube shifters survived. My only two gripes are; 1) routing the cable, and 2) that they move in a counter intuitive direction - ie click "down" to go up a gear.... but I guess that's partly to do with also being TT shifters.

Always knocking them with my knees and accidentally changing gear also have to be careful what you lean the bike on or you'll break them, especially if you're fully loaded and all the weight goes on the shifters. Downtube shifters to me seem a lot more practical, I would never go back to bar end shifters on my touring bike.