Some people are very sensitive to changes and some people are not. Just how it is.
Relativity also plays into it. Fill the fuel tank and lift the back of the sled with the stock battery vs a lithium battery and it will be less noticeable than when the fuel tank is empty.
Yeah, it's pretty hard to come up with two sleds to compare, let alone a good cross-section of riders. I'll agree with
@turboless terry that a lot of riders couldn't tell, but maybe closer to 50-50 in a truly fair comparison. Minor differences between "identical" sleds, like more aggressive clutching or a louder can, would fool a lot of people in a back-to-back ride. I'm a little iffy on L-ion batteries as worth it. Cold starts are where I'd want e-start the most, and that's where L-ion could fall short unless you bring it inside. Discussions like this make me wonder if I'd lean more towards Doo if pull starting gets to be a hassle. As long as there's not too much pulling on a cold start (mine's a bear -
- but I hear Doos are pretty easy), it seems SHOT gives you 90% of the advantage with only 20% more weight over pull start. If I needed e-start, and with an AGM battery weighing 12-14lbs but otherwise doing it's job better and cheaper than L-ion, I'd probably get the lightest AGM battery that'll work and call it a day.