Got back last Wednesday. Sorry for a delayed post. Thanks to this thread I took the Shiradi route and the Magadi road.
Started an hour and a half late at 05:30! Took Magadi road from behind Majestic. Absolutely beautiful road with only a handful of bad stretches. Some places freshly laid. You can smell the tar and median is not remarked! Even milestones are not marked. But beautiful and easy. Like Hassan - Belur stretch! joins 7 km before Kunigal! Only one 30 m stretch is bad, rest is perfect.
Hassan got bypassed quickly and then Sakhleshpur and then hit Shiradi. By then the (LPG-Bullet) Tanker Traffic had increased exponentially. Yes they are big and cumbersome and hard to overtake in traffic. But are driven by level headed quys who guide you with overtaking as they can see much further. Also saw a couple (more actually) of spilled tankers (no gas leaks tho) across the way, and all were manned by police who was helping traffic! One was right outside Kamat's blocking the road completely.
Even though we were doing good speeds, our aim of reaching Mangalore by 11:00 ish was way off target. (Mainly due to the late start and waste of time at Kamat's).
Shiradi was a joy! Almost fully done up and no issues what so ever (relatively). Of course look out for stones left behind by former breakdowners.
One more experience was the increase in air pressure as we descended the Western Ghats down to Mangalore (from the Bangalore Plateau). The ears were getting blocked like they do in a jet plane. It was much more than what happens on a flight and took several efforts to clear. One more reason could be that we were both having a cold and blocked noses could have added to this.
We finally reached BC road. Until now the roads were bliss. At BC Road, the horror unveiled. It was a mess with road construction/widening going on. No proper signals and people using completed sections of the road (not yet opened to traffic). Took a while to clear this messy stretch. Soon we were in Padil. Then Pumpwell.
Another bad stretch is the Mangalore-Udipi one. Esp if you try to bypass innner Mangalore by going from Pumpwell-Nanthoor-KPT/Kadri-Kottara directly. The road between KPT-Kottara cross is so bad it shuddered me in a Fusion!
Suggest getting into Mangalore by Pumpwell-Nanthoor-Kadri-Bejai-Lalbagh(Corporation)-MG Road-Lady Hill-Urwa Store-Infosys-Kottara. Better despite the traffic/signals you may face.
Mangalore-Udupi is bad till Surathkal, after that decent. Of course the traffic is high, but manageable.
Besides doing Mangalore-Udipi a couple of times we also went into the villages off Kundapur. A place called Padukone
.
Return was easy as well. Met some heavy rain that added to the adventure (Udupi-Mangalore stretch, before and after BC Road).
Got into Bangalore also from Magadi Road. Clue in finding it is take the right after Indo-Spanish Foods factory (on the left) when approaching Bangalore.
Was easy till we touched town and got stuck near Majestic.
Had clicked some pics, but lost them as I formatted the card without realising!