In this study, we have explored the role of the neck linker in kinesin stepping and gating by engineering kinesin constructs with extended neck linkers designed to decrease mechanical tension between the motor domains (Hackney et al., 2003). These “extended” kinesins remain processive, but show a “gating” defect, reflected in a decrease in motor velocity due to impaired coupling of ATPase turnover to forward stepping. However, the velocity of movement can be increased by chemically crosslinking the neck linkers to partially restore intramolecular tension or applying external tension on the motor with an optical trap. We also show that external tension can initiate the stepping of a kinesin motor that lacks its mechanical element (the neck linker), as well as wild-type kinesin that lacks a chemical energy source (ATP). These results suggest that the dissociation of the rear kinesin head, promoted by tension from either neck linker docking in the front head or force produced by an optical trap, constitutes a “gate” that must open for kinesin to initiate its 8 nm step.