I have a '14 Heritage Softail with OEM pipes and SE slipons. Are the cats in the pipes or the slipons? I'm not satisfied with the sound and wouldn't mind a little extra torque. I'm thinking that if the OEM pipes are catless, just replacing the slipons with aftermarket parts with more grunt and no cats would be a better bang for the buck than a complete system replacement. I.e., I'm not sure there's much to be gained by replacing catless OEM Heritage pipes. Am I missing anything here?

 

Cat will be in the collector right next to your right footboard (covered by the heat shield). I put on a set of slip on (Klok Werks Super Savers) before removing the CAT, there was a little increase in sound but was no where near what I wanted. Found a decatted head pipe on Craigslist for $100 so I bought it and swapped out the stock head pipe. MUCH better sound, I am very happy best $100 I spent on the bike so far.

Search Ebay or there is a user (ContinentalDrifter) on here that will do the job for you. I wanted to keep my stock head pipe as is just in case.
Or you can spend $400 for a head pipe from Fuel Moto.

FYI: you may need to get a tuner once you open up the exhaust beyond a set of slip ons. I already had the stage 1 air cleaner and Power Commander V installed before I swapped head pipes. Nevermind, I just read your signature line.... looks like you got that covered

 

Check out www.cyclesolutions.com. They had complete Rush longs for $269.95 shipped, may solve all your issues with cat/sound. They may have some left at that price. I just checked and they have longs in chrome and black in straight cut or slash. I don't know how they sell 'em for this price. My friend ordered an installed a pair of the chrome longs, they look and sound great.

 

Your cats are in the muffler. Aftermarket slip-ons and they are gone!

 

On my '14 FLSTC, the catalytic converters were inside the mufflers. I replaced my mufflers with Cycle Shack slip-ons pretty cheaply. I found the original mufflers getting blazing hot in stop&go traffic and they're right next to your right ankle when your stopped.

You'll get some popping on decel (or maybe you can just hear it easier without the catalyst stuffing the mufflers) until you get a re-tune.

I recently added a SE air cleaner to get rid of the 'football' and at the same time bought a Power Vision 2 tuner and auto-tuned (after the base map Fuel Moto sent with the PV2). Pleased with how everything is running now, although the bike still gets hot in stop&go traffic.

A mid-frame air deflector or Cap'n Itch crotch cooler helps with the heat from the cyl head although I like the look of the exposed engine so I just wear leather pants when riding.