40 ,thats like your 15 below to you Yankees , and super cold here in South Texas.....

Apparently the temp dropped to about -18 at one point on the way to the Elephant Treffen in Germany when we went a couple of years ago - All I remember is stopping and putting my hands on the engine to warm them up!

30-odd years ago, I rode in temps as low as 10 degrees F. Nowadays, I have a 30-30 rule: under 30 or rain chance over 30% and I drive the cage.

Broke my own rule last week, though; it got down to 23 here in northeast Florida. It's been so dry there wasn't much chance of ice and the 65 degree ride home was worth it.

When I was in college, I had no car, so I rode my motorcycle all year around, probably down to about 10 or 15 degrees F. The only time I would take the bus is when there was snow on the streets.

Now that I'm old, and have a car, I tend not to ride when it's below 40 F.

I used to commute a short route (14 miles 1 way) to work on a Honda VTX routinely in 0-10 Deg weather here in Maryland and would only "truck it" to work if it had been wet out hence the ice thing...
Worst part was the inside of the face shield icing over obscuring the vision.
Now its only a 1 - 3.75 mile commute depending on my route / mood so its bicycle time.

Cheers!

I hate to be cold but I will ride in the 40's and have good gear and heated grips which help. I have a gel seat I can put in the microwave that is good for about an hour. The 30's are really tough, it always seems there is some spot that is getting cold.....

30F here. I just wish I had a pair of heated gloves. Maybe Santa will find a pair amoung his presents, in his sack, this year. I sure hope so.

I don't usually mind the cold when I ride while wearing my Tourmaster jacket along with my "normal" winter clothing under it. I went to Cabellas and got myself a good pair of snow pants and riding gloves (not heated) and my full-face HJC helment do a resonable job together. The trick for not getting cold hands or feet is to make sure that my body core stays warm enough. Living outside Chicago means lots of cold-weather days in the winter but when the salt and ice are gone, I ride. The bike doesn't like to perform as well in the colder weather and I've often wondered if I'm not decreasing the bike's life doing it but I always make sure to get at least two LCD bars on my temp gauge before riding anywhere and I keep it in the garage at home.

When I was much younger, I rode a Yamaha 180 home at 3 in the morning wearing a non-insulated leather jacket when it was probably about 40 outside (ride took about 30 mins but normally would have taken 10-15 if I weren't so bloody cold). My core temp dropped enough that by the time I got home, I was suffering badly from hypothermia in my extremeties especially my legs. I had to jump into the bath tub for a while to slowly raise my temp back to normal levels just so I could go to sleep.

Now, I ride in much colder temps without the negative experiences of my youth by making sure I have the right clothing even if it is a bit of a pain to put it on and take it back off.

There is one part that really annoys me about cold-weather riding though - because I'm legally required to wear corrective lenses and I don't use contacts, cold weather often fogs up my glasses. I have to figure out how I can get a good heated helmet with something that will prevent my glasses from fogging up while I ride. In the past, I've opened up the windscreen just slightly (and temporarily) to keep the lenses clear but that just doesn't work at very low speeds or when I am breathing a little harder. If I had a way to pre-heat the air coming into the helmet, that would fix the problem at all driving speeds. Maybe I'll look into that for next winter... :-) Down to about 40F, it doesn't bother me too much but below that, it gets really annoying.

That would be about 55F degrees. I don't much like dressing up like an Apollo astronaut to go riding.

The coldest I have ridden in is 15F. As long as there is no snow or ice on the road, I'm fine with riding. With heated gear, 15F feels like 55 or 60.
If there has been precipitation, I won't go below freezing.