Reinitialise existing jQuery flexslider with new options

Question

I used $(document).ready to load script:

$(document).ready(function (){
    $('.flexslider').flexslider({
       animation: 'fade',
       controlsContainer: '.flexslider'
    });
});

Next I want to change option "animation" by buttons:

<div class="container span12 menu">
    <a id="link-fade" class="menubtn" href="#">FADE</a>
    <a id="link-slide" class="menubtn" href="#">SLIDE</a>
</div>

but this not working:

$(document).ready(function (){
    $('#link-fade').click(function(){
        $('.flexslider').flexslider({
            animation: 'fade',
            controlsContainer: '.flexslider'
        });
        return false;
    });
    $('#link-slide').click(function(){
        $('.flexslider').flexslider({
            animation: 'slide',
            controlsContainer: '.flexslider'
        });
        return false;
    });
});

Answer 1

In my opinion the only way to do it is remove whole element, create new one and call flexslider function with new one. "animation" parameter is used only during initialization of widget.