You'll never guess the brand(s) of pedals I use on my bikes. (Nudge-nudge, wink-wink) Ok, maybe you can but I'll tell you anyway. Here's what I use and reasons why.
Road Bike and TT Bike - For these bikes I use the Forte CR150's which are a Look knock-off from Performance. These are just like the Looks in every way except the price. I believe I paid ~$40 per pair whereas the Looks start at $100. I can comfortably compare their performance against the Looks because I have an authentic 'vintage' pair of Looks from back in the 1980's that I use on my trainer bike. It is also very convenient to have the same style of pedals on all your bikes so any shoe you happen to have with you will work, i.e. it minimizes the number of pairs of shoes you need to own. A photo of my road pedals is shown below.
MTB - For my MTB, I use the Ascent ATB clipless pedals. I shouldn't have to tell you why but I got these for $15 a pair from Performance Bike. They use the Shimano SPD cleats so there is no issue with cleat availability. Before these I used the Forte knock-off of this pedal that lasted about a year or so. The failure point was the front part of the pedal where the SPD cleat was anchored snapped off after catching on a log/rock/other obstacle. I have not had this problem with the Ascents. These pedals do not perform real well in the mud. Let me restate, I have trouble clipping in when there is a lot of mud on the bottom of the shoe. For the price, these pedals work fine.
