I find my full face road helmet is much better in the cold... The reason this helmet is only good down to about 40F is because the chin is so far in front of your face it allows in copious amounts of air... My mommy made a spiffy sweater, or "jumper" if your Australian/British, for me which has a ridiculously high collar, when zipped up seals pretty good to the bottom of my "regular shape" road helmet, an HJC $100- helmet.... I've recently picked up a baklava.... oh sorry, a balaclava made out of spandex or something which I'm going to give a shot and see if it keeps some individual parts of my face a little warmer.... My helmet is VERY noisy, but I don't much notice with my $20 Walmart special "Marshmallow" ear buds. They seal so well I can hear the music on like Volume 3 out of 30 on my phone, hear the bike a plenty, horns, sirens, but not insults yelled out the window... They work for me... If you can't hear your bike with the ear-buds in, put on a louder exhaust..
Gloves, I've been riding around with some "mildly cold weather gloves" as of late, first gear I think, but my fingers still get too cold for my operating ability of comfort, thus I finally broke down and got some EXTREME cold weather gloves - some Tour Master Winter Elites, and will be giving them a shot with my heated grip tomorrow going to church (30 min ride into the mountains)... If they don't keep my hands as warm as I want to be, then I'm going to have to start saving electric gloves, which are WAY expensive!
and what about the option to not ride and drive a car on those cold mornings? Bah, sacrilegious!
