Two phrases ring in my ears. "You can never use too much tire lube" and "if you're sweating while installing a mousse you're doing it wrong". It was easier to get one of those right.
I used 1.5 tubes of lube spread across the inside carcass of the tire and the mousse. It was like wresting a big worm trying to get it into the tire. Nitro Mousse's fitament guide suggested a 120 mousse for this particular 110 tire (Dunlop Geomax AT 81). It was a squeeze.
Me mid-wresting match. The trick was to spread the tire and push the mousse in place and then work around until it popped in. Messy.
From there I watched the "3 minute mousse tire change" video about 3 times (linked above) and set to work on the tire stand.
They make it look easy on the video. My mousse/tire combo was a bit tighter squeeze than the one they used. However, the trick that
can-not be over-emphasized is to use a few tire irons, vice grips, or something to keep the opposing lip down in the groove, not seated. This gives you a little extra room to maneuver. As you can see I was grunting and shedding layers, so I'm still refining my technique. Probably took me about 5 minutes to get the first side on after I spent a good 5 minutes doing it wrong. It was actually easier than some tube-changing experiences I've had and no worry of a pinch!
There was a fair bit of grunting to get the second lip on the rim, but after another 10-15 minutes I had a fully mounted mousse. I cut down a tube to just the shrader valve in case I needed to inject air in to seat the bead. The bead seated fine, but I've heard of some people using this to add lube to the mousse. Not sure how I will "force" lube into the "open" shrader valve (no valve core), but for now it's sealed and well lubed. I taped the inside with Tubliss rim tape before install. Sorry, no pics of that.
I'm hopeful that the front will be a bit easier. Keen to test them at Barnwell this coming Sunday.
I had some last minute wrestling to get the rim-lock to push in and seat, but the tire stand worked like a charm. Some installers comment on its low height, but I liked the ability to get leverage on the tire. Two thumbs up so far.