Rider

Riders from all over the world compete in the Superbike World Championship. The championship is perhaps most closely followed in Italy because of Ducati and the United Kingdom where superbike racing has been the most popular form of motorcycle racing. National-championship superbike racing is conducted in several countries, including the United States, the U.K. and Japan. Riders from Australia and the United States have traditionally been successful in the world championship, though no American rider won a race since Colin Edwards won the 2002 championship and no Americans competed between 2003 and 2007.

British rider Carl Fogarty has the record of being the most successful rider in the championship's history, winning the championship 4 times, and amassing a total of 59 race wins.

Many riders successful in the Superbike World Championship have gone on to MotoGP, such as 2002 champion Colin Edwards, 2007 champion James Toseland, and 2005 runner-up Chris Vermeulen. The championship has seen several former MotoGP riders move to it, usually after failing to earn competitive rides. The 2008 field includes five former MotoGP winners: Max Biaggi, Carlos Checa and Makoto Tamada all raced exclusively in MotoGP before joining SBK, while Troy Bayliss, Noriyuki Haga, and Régis Laconi had alternating spells in both.

Except for Frenchman Raymond Roche, who won the championship in 1990, all Superbike World Champions have been native English speakers. Italian riders Davide Tardozzi and Marco Lucchinelli won the first two races of the series, and Frenchman Adrien Morillas was also victorious in 1988; Germany had to wait for Max Neukirchner to achieve this in 2008, although Austrian Andreas Meklau was the first German-speaker to win a race, in 1994.Spain´s first race winner was Ruben Xaus in 2001