You'll be surprised how many bridleways are indistinguishable from metalled roads on Ye Olde Ordnance Survey Mappe....
May I RESPECTFULLY point out to The Honourable Organiser that Walbury Hill quite cleary has a bridleway* over the top (check it on BikeHike), whatever your GPS said!
(actually I think it's a B.O.A.T., but I would always expect the surface to be the same)
I had no particular example in mind, sniff, tho I still have flashbacks regarding traversing the 'road' from Mapledurham through to Hardwicke with the progenitor of the Willy Warmer on our first routecheck. As I recall my companion spent the next 20 minutes picking the mud off his £3k bike with a twig...
It's white on the OS maps, with overlaid red dashes . . . . But I've done it on a tourer, many times. All of it's OK except after heavy rain, when the first bit is a little mucky.
The Whitchurch-Mapledurham track? That's very nice WHEN DRY! (CTC use it).
As for Walbury Hill .. there are two points here Bledlow:
- It's clearly not a proper road on the OS, yet the GPSes said it was.
- I can believe your experience - it looked pretty navigable when we were there (dry day), probably better than the tarmac option; drop-followedby-chevron-climb!
I hope I'm not missing something here - surely if the OS has put Red Dashes on a track/road, you know it's not a proper road, don't you? You might be lucky, and find enough tarmac to use, but that's all you could ask for, I think.