Cycling tights for 40f - 60f weather?

For days in the 60s, I usually go with my regular shorts plus knee warmers. Around 55-60 I will do leg warmers rather than knee warmers.

Around 45-55 I will just put a plain pair of tights over my shorts. These could be running or cycling tights.

Around 40 you could do a thicker pair of tights, but I have found that the Amfib tights actually function well up into the 40s.

So I have unpadded Amfib tights and unpadded lightweight tights, although you could probably skip the lightweight tights and go between Amfib tights and leg warmers if you're on a budget.

That is a pretty big temperature range for a single garment. At the top end of the range, knee or leg warmers would be best, at the lower end, a medium weight pair of tights would work. Padded tights are expensive and unnecessary, most people wear their regular shorts under unpadded tights. I have leg warmers, knee warmers, and light, medium and heavy weight tights to deal with different temperatures, no one solution works over all cold weather temperatures.