I just bought a Dutch Union Safari off Craigslist to use as my errand/commuter/"junk" bike and it came equiped with bottle dynamo head/tail lights. As I am fairly new to this style of bike light, I have a few questions I was hoping someone could answer.

1. I will need to replace the tires soon and the current tires have a "generator strip," raised grooves on the side wall for the dynamo to rub against, is this strip nessecary or will it still work with smooth walled tires? (I am currently running both dynamo and battery/rechargable head and tail lights since the lights i already own are brighter than what the dynamo generates and the dynamo lights shut off as soon as the bike stops moving but i like having the dynamo as a backup/failsafe.)

2. How difficult would it be to replace the current incandescent fixtures with more modern LED fixtures? Is it just a matter of disconnect whats there and reconnect new lights or are there additional modifications nessecary?

3. I have found LED replacement lightbulbs built to install/screw in to the existing lights (built especially for this purpose), this seems a much more economical option at $15-$20 than replacing the whole system, just wondering if anyone has experience with these bulbs? how well do they work? (one is from compass bikes and the other is from reflectalite.)

Thanks for your help.