technique - How to estimate depth of field?

Possible Duplicate:
Is there a 'rule of thumb' that I can use to estimate depth of field while shooting?

How do you estimate the aperture needed to produce sufficient depth of field for a given subject?

For example:
Suppose I am facing a bicycle from the front and use whatever combination of focal length and subject distance is necessary to have the bicycle completely fill the frame. I focus on the handle bars as I would like this to be the sharpest point of focus. How can I best estimate the aperture needed to ensure that entire length of the bicycle is within acceptable focus?

I have tried using my camera's DOF preview button, but the resulting image is too dark in the viewfinder to determine the depth of field.

I could use a DOF calculator, but this would take too long.

I could take a few shots at varying apertures, but again, this would take too long.

What methods do you use to visualise depth of field in situations like this?