I have had 3 m1000's & 2 M8's. If you have the motivation to spend a few hours & minimal $$ pulling weight, the difference is minimal. An M1000 loves the snopro racer style intake, there's 8lbs off the front of the sled (it's a slight power loss on the M8 so most folks keep that weight) the can weighs a TON on the 1000, so a can takes off more weight on the 1000 than the 8. By the time you do those two things you're within 15 lbs (2 gallons of gas or so).
In my opinion the main way to make a 1000 feel lighter is suspension setup, if you have it set up to transfer well while still having proper ski pressure you'll rarely notice the weight. With minimal $$ into weight loss, my 09 cf1000 is noticeably lighter than my wife's turbo M8. (the spinny thing makes the M8 feel rather light though!)
If you can afford an 08 (I've got one for sale, hint hint...), then you can ditch the reverse gears in the DD & go to electronic reverse for about $60, I feel that the gear reverse DD's are a time bomb & would be my biggest thing I'd be nervous about, My wife's 08 is on DD #2, my 07 went through one as well. Snopro differences in 07 were color, floats on front, and ti springs on the suspension & primary)
oh yeah, my wife is 105lbs, 5'1 & I'm 5'7, 180 & never have a problem getting our 1000's wherever we need to go, setup, setup, setup.
