Guys,
Will be travelling to Gokarna this weekend and planning to choose between the following routes. Will give a first hand update on the road conditions, when I'm back (though I assume there won't be much of a difference from updates given by fellow travellers during the past few weeks).
1) Bangalore -> Tumkur -> Shimoga -> Sirsi -> Mirjan -> Ankola -> Gokarna
2) Bangalore -> Timkur -> Chitradurga -> Haveri -> Sirsi -> Ankola -> Gokarna
Will be travelling on a Swift and am worried about scraping the underbody though. Really hope the roads are being patched up even as I write this

(high hopes!)