Originally Posted by chas58

God no. Better than nothing - maybe. Could be worse if it is giving crap and you believe it (well, that happened to me).
I find the LED based monitors to be crap on a bike. Its probably worse on the road (they hate to be bounced), but they are not accurate and have a lot of lag time anyway.

When doing hard intervals on the track, I need quick response as my HR peaks, drops, peaks very quickly (I'm talking <30s at over 50kph, recover, do it again). If I punch it before I recover I'm going to blow up, if I'm recovered I can go hard. Only a chest strap does this accurately enough. Wahoo seems popular. Polar is the most precise.

I'll just say the gearing I use solo is a LOT different than what I use in a pack. Figure out your steady state speed, and gear for 100rpm for that. Our tracks are hard to ride on for endurance as they are so steep. That and competing for an hour record can be painful just with the G forces. I'm hoping you don't have that problem! ;-)

Enjoy, and stay safe out there. As mentioned above, the most important thing is making sure everyone else on the track is safe!