diff --git a/lib/bundler/fetcher.rb b/lib/bundler/fetcher.rb
index a292c4f420d..c367631d909 100644
--- a/lib/bundler/fetcher.rb
+++ b/lib/bundler/fetcher.rb
@@ -59,8 +59,8 @@ def initialize(remote_uri)
       @remote_uri = remote_uri
       @public_uri = remote_uri.dup
       @public_uri.user, @public_uri.password = nil, nil # don't print these
-      if USE_PERSISTENT
-        @connection ||= Net::HTTP::Persistent.new 'bundler', :ENV
+      if defined?(OpenSSL::SSL)
+        @connection = Net::HTTP::Persistent.new 'bundler', :ENV
       else
         if @remote_uri.scheme == "https"
           raise Bundler::HTTPError, "Could not load OpenSSL.\n" \
@@ -191,7 +191,7 @@ def fetch(uri, counter = 0)
 
       begin
         Bundler.ui.debug "Fetching from: #{uri}"
-        if USE_PERSISTENT
+        if @connection.is_a?(Net::HTTP::Persistent)
           response = @connection.request(uri)
         else
           req = Net::HTTP::Get.new uri.request_uri
diff --git a/lib/bundler/vendored_persistent.rb b/lib/bundler/vendored_persistent.rb
index 54204cfd5e7..57266636427 100644
--- a/lib/bundler/vendored_persistent.rb
+++ b/lib/bundler/vendored_persistent.rb
@@ -5,11 +5,6 @@
   vendor = File.expand_path('../vendor', __FILE__)
   $:.unshift(vendor) unless $:.include?(vendor)
   require 'net/http/persistent'
-
-  USE_PERSISTENT = true
-
 rescue LoadError, NameError => e
   require 'net/http'
-  USE_PERSISTENT = false
-
 end