From my limited experience of only doing a fairings changeover, you'd have to remove the nose cone/front cowl, and to do that, you need to remove side fairings and to do that you need to remove belly pan. So yes, to gain proper access to mounts and wiring, I can't see any other way out of it.
Having done it this morning, it is possible to take the nose cowl off without taking the sides and bottom off but it’s fiddly. Can dig out a helpful link if useful. Couldn’t comment on taking the clocks off though, I left them firmly attached.
Haha it’s not easy, advanced surgical skills with a thin screwdriver is also useful. You can get a thin bladed flathead screwdriver through the gap in the side fairing and disengage the clip on the smaller connector and then it just pulls out. Getting it back in is another story. I could write it up if you think it would be useful to other members?
It would be VERY useful - done as a separate thread in the 'Maintenance' section. There have been many similar works by members who have installed different headlights/Angel Eyes etc, then there are those doing fairing changeovers (Chinese) or simple crash damage repairs.
I changed my clocks to HM Dash and had to take off the front fairing as there were 3 x screws behind holding onto clock bracket.
