A friend of mine is keen to find out his FTP. He is not a TrainerRoad user and doesn’t have access to a bike with a power meter. I was planning to have him over to do a Ramp Test on my account using my WattBike and just not accept the FTP and delete the workout after. Does this seem like a valid approach or should I do something different? I suspect he’s got a lower FTP than me, so would the scale of the Ramp Test be appropriate for him?
Sign them up to a free 14 days on zwift and do the ramp test lite.
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The Half Monty ramp test on Wahoo SYSTM is also available on the app without a subscription.
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If you really want to use the TrainerRoad ramp test my advice would be change your FTP to a better estimation of your friends before running the test - that way the steps in the ramp will be more realistic. Don’t know your friends experience but I’d suggest something around the 2w/kg as a reasonable starting point for a beginner with some cycling experience.
Then run the ramp test, don’t save results and revert your ftp back to real figure by deleting the change. I think deleting the change would be better than changing ftp back. You can view your ftp history, and delete any recorded change in your profile.
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If it’s just a one off, then yea just load up the ramp test and let them send it. It won’t be accurate because as @philrcook says ‘that way the steps in the ramp will be more realistic.’
I believe if you manually change your FTP then it’ll reset your PL’s accordingly which would be annoying. You could do it and just skip all the adaptations it tries to make, but for a one off experiment that seems like a lot of work and bother.
Do all the ramp tests: TR, Zwift, Systm. Then we can compare what app gives what FTP.
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This makes sense to me. On top of that, you get some free miles/kilometers each month which means he could repeat free each month or so if desired.
Add in the option to link Strava for tracking it and I think this makes more sense than hacking in TR.
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Do not do the ramp test lite unless you think their FTP is about 150 watts!
Just do the regular ramp test and all will be fine.
Of course, the number they get out of the back of the ramp test should be taken with a pinch of salt anyway, especially if they have thighs like tree trunks. 
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You don’t even need an app. You can just do a test on your head unit. Or, you can just give your friend instructions. Just tell him the steps to ride. I did something like this with my GF on one of her first efforts using power. I just told her a target to hit.
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Don’t change your FTP as it will screw up your PLs. If he isn’t close to your ftp the steps and test length could be off enough to invalidate the test.
He will probably get a better result just doing a 20 min all out effort recorded on any app or device and then taking 95% of the average power. Old Skool!
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Thanks all - I have a free account on Zwift, so he did the regular ramp test there. Was a bit worried we’d run out of free the free 25KM but still got 17 left after the test.
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Always run the test on the Alpe or a Climb Portal option. No need to worry about running out of kilometers.
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Unless things have changed, and I admit I’ve not used Zwift in well over a year, you could far exceed the 25km IF you just kept riding. All that used to happen after you hit the 25km was you’d stop receiving sweat points or whatever they’re called.
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And the result was?
This made me think, wouldn’t it be a pretty good marketing tool if the ramp test was a free option for anyone that registers for TR. then they could get you in the app and hopefully convert new users. Just have that as the only workout and everything else is locked until you subscribe.
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