The decreased velocity and chemomechanical coupling of the extended kinesins is most likely due to the loss of intramolecular tension, but it was important to rule out alternative consequences that might arise from neck linker amino acid insertion. We therefore investigated whether it might be possible to increase the velocity of an extended kinesin by restoring tension via chemical crosslinking. To accomplish this, we inserted a cysteine at the N terminus of the 13P insertion in a cysteine-light kinesin construct (termed Cys-13P) (Figure 2A) and then covalently linked these cysteines in the two chains of the kinesin dimer with a bifunctional crosslinking agent. The position of this interchain crosslink should be similar to the start of neck coiled-coil in WT kinesin and thus might be expected to restore intramolecular tension. Under optimized conditions, ∼50% of the Cys-13P kinesin construct were crosslinked, whereas the cysteine-light kinesin template showed no crosslinking (Figure 2B). In the absence of crosslinker, Cys-13P moved at 116 nm/s (Figure 2C). However, in the presence of crosslinker, a second, higher velocity peak was observed at 250 nm/s (Figure 2D). The approximate proportion of these two peaks is consistent with the ratio of crosslinked to non-crosslinked motor (Figure 2B). These crosslinking experiments further support our conclusion that tension between the two heads is important for the normal velocity of kinesin movement.