diff --git a/requests/models.py b/requests/models.py
index de48ee72..180d448d 100644
--- a/requests/models.py
+++ b/requests/models.py
@@ -226,9 +226,6 @@ class Request(RequestHooksMixin):
         params = {} if params is None else params
         hooks = {} if hooks is None else hooks
 
-        # Default empty string for method.
-        method = '' if method is None else method
-
         self.hooks = default_hooks()
         for (k, v) in list(hooks.items()):
             self.register_hook(event=k, hook=v)
diff --git a/test_requests.py b/test_requests.py
index cad8c055..81a661f5 100755
--- a/test_requests.py
+++ b/test_requests.py
@@ -89,7 +89,7 @@ class RequestsTestCase(unittest.TestCase):
             requests.get('http://')
 
     def test_basic_building(self):
-        req = requests.Request()
+        req = requests.Request(method='GET')
         req.url = 'http://kennethreitz.org/'
         req.data = {'life': '42'}
 
@@ -813,7 +813,7 @@ class RequestsTestCase(unittest.TestCase):
         assert ('user', 'pass#pass') == requests.utils.get_auth_from_url(url)
 
     def test_cannot_send_unprepared_requests(self):
-        r = requests.Request(url=HTTPBIN)
+        r = requests.Request(method='GET', url=HTTPBIN)
         with pytest.raises(ValueError):
             requests.Session().send(r)