diff --git a/swh/loader/git/dumb.py b/swh/loader/git/dumb.py
--- a/swh/loader/git/dumb.py
+++ b/swh/loader/git/dumb.py
@@ -11,12 +11,12 @@
 import struct
 from tempfile import SpooledTemporaryFile
 from typing import TYPE_CHECKING, Callable, Dict, Iterable, List, Set, cast
+import urllib.parse
 
-from dulwich.client import HttpGitClient
 from dulwich.errors import NotGitRepository
 from dulwich.objects import S_IFGITLINK, Commit, ShaFile, Tree
 from dulwich.pack import Pack, PackData, PackIndex, load_pack_index_file
-from urllib3.response import HTTPResponse
+import requests
 
 from swh.loader.git.utils import HexBytes
 
@@ -26,18 +26,7 @@
 logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
 
 
-class DumbHttpGitClient(HttpGitClient):
-    """Simple wrapper around dulwich.client.HTTPGitClient
-    """
-
-    def __init__(self, base_url: str):
-        super().__init__(base_url)
-        self.user_agent = "Software Heritage dumb Git loader"
-
-    def get(self, url: str) -> HTTPResponse:
-        logger.debug("Fetching %s", url)
-        response, _ = self._http_request(url, headers={"User-Agent": self.user_agent})
-        return response
+HEADERS = {"User-Agent": "Software Heritage dumb Git loader"}
 
 
 def check_protocol(repo_url: str) -> bool:
@@ -52,12 +41,11 @@
     """
     if not repo_url.startswith("http"):
         return False
-    http_client = DumbHttpGitClient(repo_url)
-    url = http_client.get_url("info/refs?service=git-upload-pack")
-    response = http_client.get(url)
-    content_type = response.getheader("Content-Type")
+    url = urllib.parse.urljoin(repo_url, "info/refs?service=git-upload-pack/")
+    response = requests.get(url, headers=HEADERS)
+    content_type = response.headers.get("Content-Type")
     return (
-        response.status in (200, 304,)
+        response.status_code in (200, 304,)
         # header is not mandatory in protocol specification
         and (content_type is None or not content_type.startswith("application/x-git-"))
     )
@@ -75,7 +63,8 @@
     """
 
     def __init__(self, repo_url: str, base_repo: RepoRepresentation):
-        self.http_client = DumbHttpGitClient(repo_url)
+        self._session = requests.Session()
+        self.repo_url = repo_url
         self.base_repo = base_repo
         self.objects: Dict[bytes, Set[bytes]] = defaultdict(set)
         self.refs = self._get_refs()
@@ -124,10 +113,10 @@
         return map(self._get_git_object, self.objects[object_type])
 
     def _http_get(self, path: str) -> SpooledTemporaryFile:
-        url = self.http_client.get_url(path)
-        response = self.http_client.get(url)
+        url = urllib.parse.urljoin(self.repo_url, path)
+        response = self._session.get(url, headers=HEADERS)
         buffer = SpooledTemporaryFile(max_size=100 * 1024 * 1024)
-        buffer.write(response.data)
+        buffer.write(response.content)
         buffer.flush()
         buffer.seek(0)
         return buffer