Long story but I needed a new seat for my 2009 Heritage. The one I found is from a 2016 and has the red conchos. I've got some correct ones ordered, but I have no idea how to remove these conchos, hopefully without damaging them.

 

My GUESS is that they have tangs that pierce the cover and are then folded over.
Don`t think you can get them off w/o removing the cover from the seat pan.

EDIT Of course when the new ones arrive, you`ll know for sure !

 

Quick reading, my thought was "why would you want to remove them? They're beautiful." Oh, I have a 2016 Heritage! I see you don't. All makes sense now!

 

I believe you just pull the leather back out how its looped through the concho and it goes through slots cut in the leather.........

 

I've taken a few seats apart. You'll need to remove enough staples to fold up the sides to get at the rivets and backing plate. I've never seen a seat with fold over tangs, but they may be out there.
Once you have then changed you'll need a big hand stapler to reattach the cover to the backing plate. There's some good videos on YouTube that go through pulling a cover and reattaching it. Most are about changing the foam on the seat.

 

The seat has a flap on each side that’s big enough to access the underside of the concho. It uses a stud on the concho, a backing plate and what looks like the type of fastener they used to use to hold emblems on car. I could get it apart by breaking off the stud, but I don’t want to do that if I don’t have to.

 

I thought about putting matching conchos on it, but the trim color on my white 2009 is blue and I’d have to buy conchos for the saddlebags and sissy bar, then tank badges. Even then the pinstripe color is blue, so I’ve decided to scrap that idea.

 

Good luck getting the backing plate off without destroying the one way inserts. Hope the new conchos come with new backing plates.

 

How did you manage to get that one off?

 

I've successfully undone this type of H-D fastener before. I put a tiny bit of grease on the stud, and then I used small electrical screwdrivers to gently lift each metal tab repeatedly. I managed to avoid damaging anything, and I successfully reinstalled them when I disposed of the motorcycle. It takes a lot of time, dedication and patience!