Are bike couplers (S&S, Ritchey, etc.) just an American phenomenon?

[Bigfoot]

Seems that bike couplers (S&S, Ritchey, etc) aren't at all popular like it is the the USA. Why is this?

I really like the idea of couplers, but if tomorrow the airlines decided to let bikes fly free then there would be no need to put couplers on frames.

[Andrew R Stewart]

Coupliers are more popular in the US then Europe for sure. Maybe decades of public transpertation (trains, buses, ferries, ect) that allow bikes, and the general acceptance of things cycling, make the need for coupled bikes less in Europe. Folding bikes have a long history in both Europe and Asia but they tend to be more transpertation/utility based. But the "vacation by bike in another far away place" and the want of a light weight "sport" bike does seem to be more common here. One advantage of a coupled bike is the smaller box/case, this is why my next frame build will be a coupled one. When I toured Scotland (both times) the cabs were only 2" too large for the cardboard bike boxes used to fly them there. Once there we used trains (for the long transfers) and only needed to take off the panniers to hang the bikes without issues. Now if you're travelling by tandem, coupliers are almost a must. Andy.