There's a time and place for HR monitoring. I used mine with the Garmin almost without fail for two years, and initially while riding the trainer with training videos. I've come to have a pretty good sense of where my heart rate is at, and now pay more attention to recovery time than actual heart rate. Similar to the OP, l've ridden more without it this year, and lucky for me when I have pulled it out of the drawer it works as good as it ever has.