Either will work. I don't understand anyone who would just cut the ends off any unused wires and leave the wires in the main harness, that's about as rough as it gets!
Oh dear me... we seem to have upset the grumpy Aussie's sensibilities.
Let's work this through....
Here's a harness I hacked for other reasons.
So... we'll loosely attach the harness to the bike and hook up everything we want to work on the bike. Satisfied everything works as it should, wrap a piece of masking tape on the wires and connectors we
don't want to keep. Pull the harness back off the bike... or not. It can be done in situ... and using your best hackery... dyke them suckers off.
Cut the wires staggered so as not to have them bunch in one place. Grab your electrical tape and tape the harness back together.
... and done. A one of a kind custom harness. Quick, simple and looks just like the original factory harness.... minus the junk you din't want. Backyard hackery at it's finest.
Wanna get real fancy? Grab your braided harness covering material and start by covering the individual connector wires...
You can get real fancy and fasten it with different colored tape.
Fold it over, slit it where it goes into the main harness and work it into place... taping it off when you're happy.
Rinse and repeat as required until all the harness is covered... tape or zip tie all the ends in place... and here we are... a right fancy lookin'
factory harness that we didn't have to spend hours and hours makin'.
I really should have used a black zip tie on that.... but I was too damn lazy to go hunt one up... my bad.
So here's the bottom line... the OP isn't experienced in making harnesses or he never would have started a thread askin' how. Here's a viable alternative to "rolling your own."
Have a look on FB, Craigslist... or your favorite site for bike hunting. On any given day you'll find an ad....
For Sale: Bobber project.
I started this about 5 yrs ago, figured out I was in over my head and it's sat in my garage ever since. I just want it gone so I have my space back. $400 obo. Call blah blah blah.....
How 'bout we make it easy on the kid so he can actually finish his project huh?
Edit: Took me about 10 min to run through all that. If you take a little time at it, you can make it look much fancier.