Like gypsy rose Lee. Take it all off, take it all off now. Get it all off and she'll be in her birthday clothes to get at the brake wires. Maybe I've just come up with a name for my bike. Gypsy. Has a ring to it. On her fingers and bells on her toes. Thanks Tony Orlando!
Yep. That's the only way to do it. I also switched the signal lights over to LEDs and put my ballast resistors (to keep the flash rate constant) in at the same time, since it's the same harness area. And then I also ran a wire out for extra brake lights around the license plate (I used some small "eagle eye" red LEDs). Plan out ALL you want to do to the rear, do it all at one time, and be done with it.
Not on my ctx700, but on other bike I just added a Replacement bulb that would flash 3 times before going on full. I do not know if a bulb like that would work for the ctx700. But you may want to check it out and save the wiring. I got that bulb off of ebay.