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My winter ride enjoyment is proportionate to the gear i wear and confidence. I ride all year (but prefer Spring) 10 - 14 degrees, but I have heated gloves to use, thermals if needed etc. I always wash my bike and check tyres etc. I wear very decent rain proof textiles, gloves and boots. I feel as happy cornering in the wet as I do the try. Rain cleans my kit !
I commute each day to North Bristol. 25 miles each way, all year round. The car comes out in ice, snow or fog. VFR800 is the all-year round bike. Others (classics and hyper sports) are fair weather only. -6 and sunny was coldest this Winter. Many mornings sub-zero. Very good kit + thermals and glove liners make it possible. Tips of fingers can feel unpleasantly cold on the worst mornings. Must get round to fitting heated grips, which I had on an RF900 I sold last year. Quite effective. Tyres are like concrete for much of the winter, particularly in the wet or on motorways. Just go slower and compensate. It's not rocket science.
If I feel cold I just look at the car drivers sitting in jams as I serenely glide past. That warms me up. If the bike sees salt on the roads it gets buckets of rainwater thrown over it before putting away each time. I've see bikes of mine really fall apart from salt.
In past years when HM The Wife and I only had one car and one bike, I commuted into Bath from Corsham every working day. She had the car as we had kids. Come what may, -10 I remember one year. I was on an MZ with a cable front brake, which was frozen. That made 15 bhp feel really scary.
I've worked in Canada where winter biking really is a no-no. We are in 'in between land' here in Southern England. California is paradise, Canada in Winter is not nice. Wiltshire's somewhere in-between. Go for it!
By the way, I'm nearer 70 than 60.
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