How to get started uploading to youtube?

[Terry_b]

So I've been recording a lot of the rides that my fiancee and I go on. Nothing special really, just some fun little rides around the countryside in Massachusetts. 

I've got hours of gopro footage, and I was thinking about throwing it up on youtube for fun. I was hoping to get some pointers from those of you who have been doing this for a while. 

1) I've played with Sony Vegas a bit, and I can edit the video that way. Any other suggestions?

2) How do you guys decide where to make cuts for a nice video? The rides are anywhere from an hour to 2 hours long. I know a 2 hour youtube video is going to get boring pretty quick.

3) Also, the footage is broken up into chapters by the camera. I know of some software that will just join the chapters, but if I'm editing with Vegas or something else, do I need to worry about joining the footage before I put it in Vegas?

4) We're communicating via SENA headsets, but I don't record any voice audio, just the ride (which is basically what I'm going for. I do enjoy some moto vloggers, but some of them talk waaaay too much. And I'm not looking to get youtube famous or rich). 

Really, I just want a place to share our rides and have access to them anywhere. All this footage is just sitting on my hard drives.

 

[Mechie]

I do mainly mountain biking but been recording moto rides as well just in case. My favorite software is Davinci Resolve for editing. It’s even free. 
 

Any software should allow you to take clips and transition between them then add sound over. Once you render the files you’ll have a complete video to put on YouTube or wherever. 

You just have to figure out what kind of flow you want. Highlight certain sections of road, blend in some snaps from look out points, picks some music or recorded audio. Options are limitless.