Always used SPD's & Time MTB pedals & shoes so am a bit uneducated when it comes to road shoes and cleats.........so I suppose my question is:
Whats the benefit of a road style cleat/clip over what I'm used to when it comes to road bikes....?
Any help much appreciated...
Ta
Johnny
stiffer, more comfortable over long distance, nicer looking shoes 
nicer looking shoes
No you are wrong.
Purest Goppery.
Reducing hot spots,
Greater energy transfer through a larger platform.
Locked in.
Stability etc.
The pain i had using my mtb spds/mtb shoes was awful. moving onto a road shoe and pedal is well worth it.
What zaskar says (though I would've used less press-release-speak) 
Plus; the ability to run fully fixed cleats.
Sometimes lighter weight too, with only one side.
Possibly the finest reason is the ability to show up some folks total and utter lack of taste, eh, Talkemada!
Wider platform adn more comfortable over long distances, feel better when out of the saddle too.
I really noticed teh difference when i moved from SPD's to Look style road ones
Road cleats look & behave like mtb cleats would do if they didn't have to deal with that pesky mud rubbish.
MTB cleated shoes are nicer to walk in so if you ever conceive of having to walk more than a handful of yards at any one time in your cleats I would suggest to stay mtb stylee.
the only benefit for me is weight.
Having tried both types, the hotspots/"energy transfer"/wider platfrom/stability thing is a myth as far as I'm concerned. With carbon-soled mtb shoes I can do 150 miles no problem.
Having just moved to road SPD-SL from using touring style A520 SPD which I used with carbon soled MTB shoes. TBH there is not really any noticable difference to me; the A520 are much more stable than standard SPD pedals (which did give me hot spots) and the SPD-SL cleats have rubber outriggers so are much easier to walk on than expected.
There are now Ultegra level SPD touring pedals as well so I'd probably choose stiff carbon MTB shoes and them now.
Having tried both types, the hotspots/"energy transfer"/wider platfrom/stability thing is a myth as far as I'm concerned. With carbon-soled mtb shoes I can do 150 miles no problem.
Most if not all of the comments about road shoes being stiffer and not getting hot spots come from people who use flexy MTB shoes. I've done 100 mile sportives in my carbon soled MTB shoes without noticing any issues, and now I finally have some road shoes again I'm still using (single sided roadie style) SPD pedals with them. I used Look pedals for a few years, and really can't say I found any disadvantage when I switched my road bikes to SPDs.
road systems are much more stable. and it is not a myth look type system are far more stable
but for my road bikes (SS Road Bike and Brompton) as per cheers_drive SPD touring are a good compromise (spd walking potential with a bit more stablity)
i use these - Shimano A520 - £29 are CRC inc cleats (got 2 pairs on evans price match):
road systems are much more stable. and it is not a myth look type system are far more stable
I went out and clipped my road shoes into the SPD pedals on my hack bike, which are ubiquitous M959s, and however hard I twisted them I couldn't see any movement between the pedals and the pontoons on the SH71 cleats (ie they stayed in contact with each other). That's twisting them around the major axis of the shoe, which is the only direction I can imagine you could have a stability problem of any significance.
SPD touring are a good compromise (spd walking potential with a bit more stablity)
In all honesty I can't see the touring shape making that much difference. I would say my road setup is more stable than my mtb setup and if you think of the 3 axis of movement like an aircraft (pitch, roll and yaw) with the yaw movement being the action used to release the shoe, I'd say my roadie setups are more stable in roll. Not so much so that I don't choose to use an mtb system from time to time for other reasons.
Firstly, from an engineering perspective I'd say that to have an interface that comes apart like a cleat & pedal you have to build in a certain amount of play into your tolerances. If the contact points of the different parts of the mechanism are closer together that play will have a greater effect on the overall outcome. A roadie setup with a wider and longer mechanism is less susceptible to this problem.
2ndly, mtbs systems are used in nasty mud. This abrasive paste further wears away the cleat mechanisms and interfaces making the play worse much faster than an equivalent road system.
Thirdly, using a degree of common sense, the smaller cleats and pedals of a mtb setup should be possible to make much lighter than their larger road brethren - if there was nothing in it in terms of performance why would weight obsessive pro roadies not demand smaller mtb style systems?
I'd say my roadie setups are more stable in roll.
2ndly, mtbs systems are used in nasty mud. This abrasive paste further wears away the cleat mechanisms and interfaces making the play worse much faster than an equivalent road system.
) my MTB shoes do rock on the pedals because several years of use and abuse have worn down the tread enough that it no longer provides full support, along with the cleats being similarly worn with more free play. I still think this is more of a theoretical problem than a real one given that when I'm pressing down on the pedals in use they don't rock at least not that I've noticed.Thirdly, using a degree of common sense, the smaller cleats and pedals of a mtb setup should be possible to make much lighter than their larger road brethren - if there was nothing in it in terms of performance why would weight obsessive pro roadies not demand smaller mtb style systems?
re comments above..
the road type are more stable (side to side rocking), especially if once cleats start to wear a bit.... as the shoe sole is supported by the cage bit - it does as it is wearing the sole now.. but jumping from my mtb with mtd spds and my road bikes with touring spds the touring spds do hold stop any rocking.
look to be honest if people are that concerned about getting full performance on the road, buy some decent carbon road shoes and some proper road pedals, nice big cleat widely spreading the cleat load to three fixings over the width of the shoe etc etc but for general use and to retain the ability to walkaround the office/shops etc i stand by my view that for road use the touring style of SPD does offer benefits, but each to their own
if people are that concerned about getting full performance on the road, buy some decent carbon road shoes and some proper road pedals
Read again my bit about pontoons or sole tread resting on the pedal and providing the extra support you're after.
I have - top of the range carbon shoes and top of the range SPD road pedals
Road SPD are nice though that have phase out the pontoon spd which I thought was a good idea as that gave better stability without so much of the clip clop when walking, and have gone back to a look style cleat now..
SPD Cleat supports (for older road spd):
Current SPD-SL
R
ead again my bit about pontoons or sole tread resting on the pedal and providing the extra support you're after.
yer my last post was aimed at comments above your posting
Having just gone through the same debate and invested in some Time road pedals and Spesh shoes (to use instead of my MTB shoes and Time ATACs) I'm not sure whether they're worth the trouble. I'm having a dreadful job getting the cleats set up properly, despite having set up loads of Time MTB cleats without issue over the years, and keep getting pain in my right knee. I know it's not saddle height or front/back positioning as they're both the same as before I got the new pedals (except the saddle's lowered very slightly to account for the road pedals being thinner) and I'm not getting issues with knee pain with the same saddle height and front-back positioning (tibial tuberosity over pedal axle) on my MTB, so I can only blame the new pedals/cleats. I'm going to play about with them a bit more, then if no better try putting my ATACS back on - if I can ride with them with no pain then the road pedal/shoe setup's going in the classifieds.
p.s. they're sods to get into as well, although I'm fully prepared to admit that's just me still getting used to them!
I've just moved over to SPD-R from SPDs on my road bike. The road shoes are stiffer and lighter than my MTB shoes but that's because I was using a cheaper Shimano MTB shoe. If I had been using an expensive carbon soled MTB shoe I suspect the difference would have been non existant.
The road cleats do hold the shoe to the pedal more firmly than SPDs. However the SPD cleats on my MTB shoes may well be worn so its maybe not a good comparison.
Big disadvantage is that the SPD-Rs are harder to walk on and the pedals are single sided and thus harder to clip into so if your road riding involves lots of junctions and traffic lights road pedals other than Speedplays would be a total pain. Fortunatley I don't have to ride in busy towns.
In summary if you use SPDs for mountian biking I'd recommend buying nice light carbon soled MTB shoes and using SPDs for the road as well.
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