We then tested whether “external” tension from the optical trap might substitute for the loss of “internal” tension in the extended kinesin mutants, and thus restore chemomechanical coupling. Using a force-clamp optical trap (Gennerich et al., 2007), a constant 3, 6, or 9 pN assisting load was applied toward the microtubule plus end, kinesin's normal direction of travel. Because of the geometry of the experiment (diagram, Figure 4B), the applied load is primarily “felt” by the trailing head. For WT kinesin under a forward load of up to 9 pN, the velocity of movement remained largely unchanged (Figure 4C), as reported elsewhere (Block et al., 2003). If the extended kinesins move slowly under unloaded conditions because they cannot effectively detach the trailing head and pull it forward, we reasoned that the assisting load might increase their velocity of movement. Indeed, assisting loads dramatically increased the velocity of extended kinesins by several fold at 1 mM ATP. Inspection of the traces revealed that motion occurred in a step-wise manner (inserts in Figure 4B; step size analysis at lower ATP concentrations in Figure S8). At 6 pN forward load, the velocity of 13P, 14GS, and 26P approached that of WT kinesin, and at 9 pN, the extended kinesin constructs moved even faster than WT (Figure 4C). The higher velocities might be explained by the ability of extended kinesins to take larger steps. With the relatively low Brownian noise at 9 pN load, we could measure the center-of-mass step sizes (expected to be half as large as the displacement of individual kinesin heads shown in Figure 3) for 26P and WT kinesin at saturating ATP (Figure S9). Figure 4D shows that 26P takes >8 nm steps with a 9 pN assisting load and thus its average step size (11.51 nm) is larger than that of WT kinesin (7.98 nm). We also found no clear backward steps (of 302 steps scored) at this assisting load. From these data, we calculated stepping rates for WT (56.2 s-1: 449 nm/s velocity divided by a 7.98 nm step) and 26P kinesin (54.73 s-1: 630 nm/s velocity divided by an 11.51 nm step). These similar stepping rates reveal that the 9 pN forward load rescues the coupling deficiency of the 26P extended kinesin.