diff --git a/src/wasm/stream.cpp b/src/wasm/stream.cpp
@@ -337,20 +337,14 @@ static int read(wasm_http_stream* stream, read_buffer_t& read_buffer, bool is_re
     }
     else
     {
-        if (stream->m_request_index != -1)
-        {
-            git_error_set(
-                GIT_ERROR_HTTP,
-                "read called with pending request to %s",
-                stream->m_unconverted_url.c_str()
-            );
-            return -1;
-        }
-
-        if (create_request(stream, stream->m_service.m_response_type.c_str()) < 0)
+        if (stream->m_request_index == -1)
         {
-            convert_js_to_git_error(stream);
-            return -1;
+            // Send http(s) request if have not already done so.
+            if (create_request(stream, stream->m_service.m_response_type.c_str()) < 0)
+            {
+                convert_js_to_git_error(stream);
+                return -1;
+            }
         }
     }
 

diff --git a/test/test_clone.py b/test/test_clone.py
@@ -4,6 +4,7 @@
 
 from .conftest import GIT2CPP_TEST_WASM
 
+xsimd_url = "https://github.com/xtensor-stack/xsimd.git"
 xtl_url = "https://github.com/xtensor-stack/xtl.git"
 
 
@@ -218,3 +219,13 @@ def test_clone_negative_timeout_ignored(git2cpp_path, tmp_path, run_in_tmp_path)
         "environment variable GIT_HTTP_TIMEOUT must be a positive number of seconds"
         in p_clone.stdout
     )
+
+
+def test_clone_large_repo(git2cpp_path, tmp_path, run_in_tmp_path):
+    clone_cmd = [git2cpp_path, "clone", xsimd_url]
+    p_clone = subprocess.run(clone_cmd, capture_output=True, cwd=tmp_path, text=True)
+    assert p_clone.returncode == 0
+
+    assert (tmp_path / "xsimd").exists()
+    assert (tmp_path / "xsimd/include").exists()
+    assert (tmp_path / "xsimd/xsimdConfig.cmake.in").exists()