So I have a 2010 S-Works Roubaix and my friend just bought a 2012, same bike outside of his has a better groupo. I rode his tonight for a while so we could compare the 2 bikes. I won't go into frame comparisons because I am interested in starting to switch over to Red on my bike and have questions in that regard. I noticed his switched gears a little faster. Especially the front derailure.

His crankset is Red "hyperglide" were as mine are S=Works.

I noticed a bit better performance on my bike when I switched from a Shimano cassett to a Sram casset. At that point I figured that even though they are compatible, matched sets work better with each other. Although it could have just been an upgrade because of more recent technology.

On the Red tonight I noticed the distance the trigger had to move to change gears on the rear was a much shoter distance than my Force. I also noticed that it jumped from small to big in front faster. I didn't feel any braking difference. So here's my questions Can I just buy new derailures and keep my brifters for now until I can get them at a latter point? Will they work together with each other or will it only work Red with Red?

Is the faster front shifting because of the cranks or the derailure?

Lastly. How can I tell the difference of the 2 different generations of "Red" ? And how much better is this last round of Red to the Previous? Also I had heard one of the front derailures didn't work well when it first came out. Was that first or second generation, and is it all good now?

Thanks

Ryan