Pedals

I have Shimano pedals with SPD on one side and flat on the other for my road bike.
Pretty handy while you're learning SPDs or if you want to go on a more causal ride and wear trainers and walk round some shops with your lady or something?
http://www.wiggle.co.uk/shimano-a530-spd-single-sided-touring-pedals/

I also got a pair of carbon soled SPD DHB mountain bike shoes from Wiggle. M2.0C I think?
They are exactly the same as their road shoes but with SPD cleats and a rubber sole for walking around in them.

Worn them to commute, road ride and mountain bike for about 3 years now and they are still going strong.

http://road.cc/content/review/121098-dhb-m20c-carbon-mountain-bike-cycli...

Looks like they're not made any more. Maybe Decathalon does something similar?

I find you don't fall if you look a little ahead, anticipate the worst case scenario, and unclip early. Its better to clip back in than pick yourself up off the floor.

There's a big difference between commuting and a weekend recreational ride to be fair (which is all I do nowadays). I've managed to do an entire loop of my normal training route (65 miles) without clipping out once.

Commuting in London for example involves frequent stops at traffic lights. Out in the boonies you can look ahead at a junction and adjust your pace to hit a light on green without too much drama, if you slow down 50m from the lights it's no big deal as there's little to no traffic.

I've just moved over to spd-sl from spd pedals. It's been about a month and I've hated every second, but I think I'm slowly getting used to it. The biggest problem is that the pedals are single sided and I find the cleat position slightly different, after 10+ years of MTB cleats it's taking a long time to relearn the slightly different cleat position and shape.

I can't say I'm any more efficient or quicker, but I can say I swear a lot more at junctions now (as I'm sure do all the car drivers behind me as I crawl along at 5 mph trying to flip my pedals the right way around). TBH I can't see what all the fuss is about, I really cannot tell any benefit over normal spd's other than I'm less likely to fall over when I'm clattering about when off the bike.

Why don't they make metal spd-sl cleats by the way? they might last longer if I wouldn't be tempted to scrape them along the road to make sparks at every opportunity.

I find clipping in to spd-sl almost intuitive and very rarely struggle...push off and clip in within a second usually. YMMV

I have tried both the SPD and the SPD SLs. Colleague recommended the SPD SLs for road and commuting and I went for it. After a few months I changed back to SPD because the SLs are just not made for commuting. Clipping in and out is a pain and since it is only one sided I find it very slow to clip in.
One day I stumbled upon the Speedplay pedals and from all the rave reviews I thought I give it a try. I love it now and I wish somebody have showed me the way sooner and I wouldn't have to put up with the SPD SLs for that long.

I've not tried any of the non-Shimano brands, but I've got both SPD (mountain bike) and SPD-SL (road) pedals across my bikes. The Shimano stuff works well for me and countless others, YMMV of course - but mechanically they work well and the pedals last well (SPD-SL cleats probably need to be replaced every ~2000 miles or so however)

I think people overplay the slow motion fall thing. I've only done that once about 20 years ago when I was playing silly buggers (trackstand's perpendicular to a steep incline while clipped in about 30 minutes after I bought the things). For normal riding it's rarely a problem IMO.

Always had Look Keo pedals on my road bikes - served me well.

The Look Keo Easy pedals are their cheapest and marketed as ideal for riders starting out with clipless. However, I would jump straight up to Keo Max 2 pedals as they are much easier to engage when starting off - they just seem to 'hang' in the right position to clip-in first time. Plus, wiggle and crc usually sell them for around half their £95 rrp.

Always had Look Keo pedals on my road bikes - served me well.

The Look Keo Easy pedals are their cheapest and marketed as ideal for riders starting out with clipless. However, I would jump straight up to Keo Max 2 pedals as they are much easier to engage when starting off - they just seem to 'hang' in the right position to clip-in first time. Plus, wiggle and crc usually sell them for around half their £95 rrp.

I am assuming these clipless pedals will be your first foray into the world of slow-motion falling off a bike?
If so, you might consider whether you really need "racing" pedals at all. Normal, non-racing riders don't need them and manage much better on MTB style SPDs. The cleats on these are recessed into the shoes and allow you to walk like a human and, being metal, last about fifty times longer before you have to replace them.
If you don't want the chunky MTB look, Shimano, amongst others, do excellent touring shoes and pedals that still utilise the SPD pedals but have quite a racy appearance.
Best of luck.

I have both on different bikes and don't notice any difference.

you will probably fall off at least once no matter what type you choose but gets easier.