diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index b008da989a..4d623c86fa 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@
   </parent>
 
   <artifactId>github-api</artifactId>
-  <version>1.85</version>
+  <version>1.86</version>
   <name>GitHub API for Java</name>
   <url>http://github-api.kohsuke.org/</url>
   <description>GitHub API for Java</description>
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@
     <connection>scm:git:git@github.com/kohsuke/${project.artifactId}.git</connection>
     <developerConnection>scm:git:ssh://git@github.com/kohsuke/${project.artifactId}.git</developerConnection>
     <url>http://${project.artifactId}.kohsuke.org/</url>
-    <tag>github-api-1.85</tag>
+    <tag>github-api-1.86</tag>
   </scm>
 
   <distributionManagement>
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/kohsuke/github/Requester.java b/src/main/java/org/kohsuke/github/Requester.java
index 3cd338b8c2..d7d6239190 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/kohsuke/github/Requester.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/kohsuke/github/Requester.java
@@ -36,6 +36,7 @@
 import java.net.HttpURLConnection;
 import java.net.MalformedURLException;
 import java.net.ProtocolException;
+import java.net.SocketTimeoutException;
 import java.net.URL;
 import java.net.URLEncoder;
 import java.util.ArrayList;
@@ -57,6 +58,7 @@
 import org.apache.commons.lang.StringUtils;
 
 import static java.util.Arrays.asList;
+import java.util.logging.Level;
 import static java.util.logging.Level.*;
 import static org.kohsuke.github.GitHub.MAPPER;
 
@@ -579,6 +581,10 @@ private void setRequestMethod(HttpURLConnection uc) throws IOException {
     }
 
     private <T> T parse(Class<T> type, T instance) throws IOException {
+        return parse(type, instance, 2);
+    }
+
+    private <T> T parse(Class<T> type, T instance, int timeouts) throws IOException {
         InputStreamReader r = null;
         int responseCode = -1;
         String responseMessage = null;
@@ -609,6 +615,10 @@ private <T> T parse(Class<T> type, T instance) throws IOException {
             // to preserve backward compatibility
             throw e;
         } catch (IOException e) {
+            if (e instanceof SocketTimeoutException && timeouts > 0) {
+                LOGGER.log(Level.INFO, "timed out accessing " + uc.getURL() + "; will try " + timeouts + " more time(s)", e);
+                return parse(type, instance, timeouts - 1);
+            }
             throw new HttpException(responseCode, responseMessage, uc.getURL(), e);
         } finally {
             IOUtils.closeQuietly(r);