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Putting a nice feather in Gabriele Del Torchio’s cap, 2011 was the best sales year ever for Ducati. The product of several years in the making, Ducati has transitioned from a sport bike based company, to a brand that encompasses a variety of diverse biking genres. The transition began with the Ducati Hypermotard, continued with the Ducati Multistrada 1200, and culminated with the Ducati Diavel. Bringing the brand back to its roots, the Italian company released the sellout Ducati 1199 Panigale this year.

All of this positioning has taken Ducati from its traditionally precarious market position to one of not only reasonable stability, but also one that has proven to be lucrative enough to attract an acquisition from German automaker Audi. With a record number of machines leaving the doors of the Borgo Panigale factory, and Ducati’s cash finally flowing in the right direction, Del Torchio had plenty to wax on about at the World Ducati Week 2012 event. Giving some oratory high-fives at the massive Ducatisti gather, Ducati’s record year and transformation by the numbers is outlined after the jump.

The BMW Group has reported its monthly and year-to-date (YTD) sales for May 2011, and the results are a mixed bag for the German company. Selling the lion’s share of motorcycles in the group, BMW Motorrad posted a modest 3.5% sales increase last month, over the sales figures from May 2010, and a 7.3% sales increase over YTD sales compared to last year as well.

However, BMW’s other motorcycle subsidiary, Husqvarna, didn’t fare quite as well. The Swedish brand posted a 59.5% drop in sales for May 2011, with that figure helping contribute to a 14.6% drop in YTD figures compared to 2010. The silver lining perhaps in that news is that Husqvarna sold only 537 bikes this may, while BMW Motorrad sold 12,568 (roughly half of what the MINI brand sold last month).

BMW Motorrad is reporting that worldwide motorcycle sales were up 21% for the first five months of 2010, compared to 2009’s numbers. Sales were up 19.3% for the month of May alone, with 12,139 units sold, making for 45,431 units sold thus far in 2010. The newly revised BMW R1200GS/Adventure models account for 3,705 of the motorcycles sold in May, which is up almost 34% from last year.

While the GS comprises almost a third of BMW’s total sales in May, BMW reported that the F and K series motorcycles also showed strong demand in the month as well. Also making a strong showing is the all new S1000RR superbike, which sold 1,345 units in last month for a total of 5,236 units sold this year so far.