When I first started biking about eight years ago I didn't have much choice. I went car-free at that time, and if it was raining, and I wanted to go somewhere, it was by bike. We get a lot of cold and freezing rain here and those were particularly wet years - continuous rains, epic floods. Frankly I hated it and I spent a lot of time trying to deal with it.

A few years later I did get a car again, but by that time I'd figured it out and continued to commute by bike daily, in rain or other conditions. 2150 times to my current job or back, 15-22 miles round trip, and very few of them "miserable". I don't care what the weather is on a commute, which is a different story than setting out for a tour or long training ride.

The difference, the "trick" to it, is in the rider, not in equipment or clothes. Being wet, for a short period, is no great problem. Even a soaking deluge; after a point you don't really get any wetter. Accept it, enjoy it, and get on with it. It helped when I developed the aerobic conditioning for enough effort to keep myself warm, but that's a fairly low bar.

One more thing to realize, in the really cold rain, it's the air blowing across the water that saps heat. So something to block the wind, not necessarily water proof, is helpful.