diff --git a/mercurial/httppeer.py b/mercurial/httppeer.py
--- a/mercurial/httppeer.py
+++ b/mercurial/httppeer.py
@@ -138,7 +138,6 @@
         self._path = path
         self._caps = None
         self._urlopener = None
-        self._requestbuilder = None
         u = util.url(path)
         if u.query or u.fragment:
             raise error.Abort(_('unsupported URL component: "%s"') %
@@ -151,7 +150,6 @@
         ui.debug('using %s\n' % self._url)
 
         self._urlopener = url.opener(ui, authinfo)
-        self._requestbuilder = urlreq.request
 
     def __del__(self):
         urlopener = getattr(self, '_urlopener', None)
@@ -328,7 +326,7 @@
         if varyheaders:
             headers[r'Vary'] = r','.join(varyheaders)
 
-        req = self._requestbuilder(pycompat.strurl(cu), data, headers)
+        req = urlreq.request(pycompat.strurl(cu), data, headers)
 
         if data is not None:
             self.ui.debug("sending %d bytes\n" % size)