I've tried to reply to this twice already but my computer keeps on crashing Third time lucky.

You got it in one. Close enough is good enough. There is no real person anywhere that a bike is designed to fit. Everyone needs to change a few parts to fit properly but some parts cant be changed or are very expensive.

When you get your answer the problem is that it still tells you nothing about fitting a person to a bike.

Example. WSD (women specific design). There was a time when WSD was claiming to fit women with long legs/ short torso better than standard mens designs. The simple requirement. A shorter top tube. Now there are two ends of the top tube to shorten. The front at the headset and the back at the seat tube. The way that it SHOULD be done is to shorten the frame at the head tube end and leave the seat tube alone because the rider still has long legs.

The trouble is, this is more difficult to do with limiting factors such as wheel size and pedal overlap. The EASY way to shorten the top tube is to shorten it at the seat tube end which means steeper seat tube angles.

Guess which way the bike manufacturers went? That's right. The easy way which is the wrong way to do it.

So anyway a lady takes the bike for a short test ride and it feels better to her as the reach is shorter but she hasn't ridden it far enough to feel the extra weight on her hands and shoulders. She buys it anyway but months later when she feels the problem she takes it in for a fitting.

All a fitter can do is move the saddle back with a setback post if necessary but this extends the reach

Modern bike frame design is a mess.

Anthony