diff --git a/resync/client.py b/resync/client.py
index 4cf99e6..8474cc6 100644
--- a/resync/client.py
+++ b/resync/client.py
@@ -11,7 +11,8 @@ import distutils.dir_util
 import re
 import time
 import logging
-import requests
+import shutil
+import socket
 
 from .resource_list_builder import ResourceListBuilder
 from .resource_list import ResourceList
@@ -504,15 +505,12 @@ class Client(object):
             # 1. GET
             for try_i in range(1, self.tries + 1):
                 try:
-                    r = requests.get(resource.uri, timeout=self.timeout, stream=True)
-                    # Fail on 4xx or 5xx
-                    r.raise_for_status()
-                    with open(filename, 'wb') as fd:
-                        for chunk in r.iter_content(chunk_size=1024):
-                            fd.write(chunk)
+                    with url_or_file_open(resource.uri, timeout=self.timeout) as fh_in:
+                        with open(filename, 'wb') as fh_out:
+                            shutil.copyfileobj(fh_in, fh_out)
                     num_updated += 1
                     break
-                except requests.Timeout as e:
+                except socket.timeout as e:
                     if try_i < self.tries:
                         msg = 'Download timed out, retrying...'
                         self.logger.info(msg)
@@ -525,7 +523,7 @@ class Client(object):
                             return(num_updated)
                         else:
                             raise ClientFatalError(msg)
-                except (requests.RequestException, IOError) as e:
+                except IOError as e:
                     msg = "Failed to GET %s -- %s" % (resource.uri, str(e))
                     if (self.ignore_failures):
                         self.logger.warning(msg)
diff --git a/resync/client_utils.py b/resync/client_utils.py
index 15f1e47..02a6ba1 100644
--- a/resync/client_utils.py
+++ b/resync/client_utils.py
@@ -7,8 +7,6 @@ import argparse
 from datetime import datetime
 import logging
 import logging.config
-import re
-from urllib.request import urlopen
 
 from .url_or_file_open import set_url_or_file_open_config
 
diff --git a/resync/explorer.py b/resync/explorer.py
index a4c102f..3e3a3bc 100644
--- a/resync/explorer.py
+++ b/resync/explorer.py
@@ -17,7 +17,6 @@ import distutils.dir_util
 import re
 import time
 import logging
-import requests
 
 from .mapper import Mapper
 from .sitemap import Sitemap
@@ -164,7 +163,7 @@ class Explorer(Client):
                 caps = 'resource'
             else:
                 caps = self.allowed_entries(capability)
-        elif (r.capability is 'resource'):
+        elif (r.capability == 'resource'):
             caps = r.capability
         else:
             caps = [r.capability]
@@ -278,38 +277,36 @@ class Explorer(Client):
         print("HEAD %s" % (uri))
         if (re.match(r'^\w+:', uri)):
             # Looks like a URI
-            response = requests.head(uri)
+            with url_or_file_open(uri, method='HEAD') as response:
+                status_code = response.code()
+                headers = response.headers()
         else:
             # Mock up response if we have a local file
-            response = self.head_on_file(uri)
-        print("  status: %s" % (response.status_code))
-        if (response.status_code == '200'):
+            (status_code, headers) = self.head_on_file(uri)
+        print("  status: %s" % (status_code))
+        if (status_code == '200'):
             # print some of the headers
             for header in ['content-length', 'last-modified',
                            'lastmod', 'content-type', 'etag']:
-                if header in response.headers:
+                if header in headers:
                     check_str = ''
                     if (check_headers is not None and header in check_headers):
-                        if (response.headers[header] == check_headers[header]):
+                        if (headers[header] == check_headers[header]):
                             check_str = ' MATCHES EXPECTED VALUE'
                         else:
                             check_str = ' EXPECTED %s' % (
                                 check_headers[header])
-                    print(
-                        "  %s: %s%s" %
-                        (header, response.headers[header], check_str))
+                    print("  %s: %s%s" % (header, headers[header], check_str))
 
     def head_on_file(self, file):
-        """Mock up requests.head(..) response on local file."""
-        response = HeadResponse()
-        if (not os.path.isfile(file)):
-            response.status_code = '404'
-        else:
-            response.status_code = '200'
-            response.headers[
-                'last-modified'] = datetime_to_str(os.path.getmtime(file))
-            response.headers['content-length'] = os.path.getsize(file)
-        return(response)
+        """Get fake status code and headers from local file."""
+        status_code = '404'
+        headers = {}
+        if os.path.isfile(file):
+            status_code = '200'
+            headers['last-modified'] = datetime_to_str(os.path.getmtime(file))
+            headers['content-length'] = os.path.getsize(file)
+        return(status_code, headers)
 
     def allowed_entries(self, capability):
         """Return list of allowed entries for given capability document.
@@ -367,15 +364,6 @@ class XResource(object):
         self.checks = checks
 
 
-class HeadResponse(object):
-    """Object to mock up requests.head(...) response."""
-
-    def __init__(self):
-        """Initialize with no status_code and no headers."""
-        self.status_code = None
-        self.headers = {}
-
-
 class ExplorerQuit(Exception):
     """Exception raised when user quits normally, no error."""
 
diff --git a/resync/url_or_file_open.py b/resync/url_or_file_open.py
index 983e1aa..4981fa4 100644
--- a/resync/url_or_file_open.py
+++ b/resync/url_or_file_open.py
@@ -21,11 +21,14 @@ def set_url_or_file_open_config(key, value):
     CONFIG[key] = value
 
 
-def url_or_file_open(uri):
+def url_or_file_open(uri, method=None, timeout=None):
     """Wrapper around urlopen() to prepend file: if no scheme provided.
 
     Can be used as a context manager because the return value from urlopen(...)
     supports both that and straightforwrd use as simple file handle object.
+
+    If timeout is exceeded then urlopen(..) will raise a socket.timeout exception. If
+    no timeout is specified then the global default will be used.
     """
     if (not re.match(r'''\w+:''', uri)):
         uri = 'file:' + uri
@@ -42,4 +45,5 @@ def url_or_file_open(uri):
     if NUM_REQUESTS != 0 and CONFIG['delay'] is not None and not uri.startswith('file:'):
         time.sleep(CONFIG['delay'])
     NUM_REQUESTS += 1
-    return urlopen(Request(url=uri, headers=headers))
+    maybe_timeout = {} if timeout is None else {'timeout': timeout}
+    return urlopen(Request(url=uri, headers=headers, method=method), **maybe_timeout)
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 8d110dd..9a049d8 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -61,7 +61,6 @@ setup(
     long_description=open('README.md').read(),
     long_description_content_type='text/markdown',
     install_requires=[
-        "requests",
         "python-dateutil>=1.5",
         "defusedxml>=0.4.1"
     ],

diff --git a/tests/test_explorer.py b/tests/test_explorer.py
index e5d214f..04a1649 100644
--- a/tests/test_explorer.py
+++ b/tests/test_explorer.py
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ import sys
 from resync.client import Client
 from resync.client_utils import ClientFatalError
 from resync.capability_list import CapabilityList
-from resync.explorer import Explorer, XResource, HeadResponse, ExplorerQuit
+from resync.explorer import Explorer, XResource, ExplorerQuit
 from resync.resource import Resource
 
 
@@ -30,11 +30,6 @@ class TestExplorer(unittest.TestCase):
         self.assertEqual(x.acceptable_capabilities, [1, 2])
         self.assertEqual(x.checks, [3, 4])
 
-    def test02_head_response(self):
-        hr = HeadResponse()
-        self.assertEqual(hr.status_code, None)
-        self.assertEqual(len(hr.headers), 0)
-
     def test03_explorer_quit(self):
         eq = ExplorerQuit()
         self.assertTrue(isinstance(eq, Exception))
@@ -105,13 +100,14 @@ class TestExplorer(unittest.TestCase):
 
     def test08_head_on_file(self):
         e = Explorer()
-        r1 = e.head_on_file('tests/testdata/does_not_exist')
-        self.assertEqual(r1.status_code, '404')
-        r2 = e.head_on_file('tests/testdata/dir1/file_a')
-        self.assertEqual(r2.status_code, '200')
+        (status_code, headers) = e.head_on_file('tests/testdata/does_not_exist')
+        self.assertEqual(status_code, '404')
+        self.assertEqual(headers, {})
+        (status_code, headers) = e.head_on_file('tests/testdata/dir1/file_a')
+        self.assertEqual(status_code, '200')
         self.assertTrue(re.match(r'^\d\d\d\d\-\d\d\-\d\d',
-                                 r2.headers['last-modified']))
-        self.assertEqual(r2.headers['content-length'], 20)
+                        headers['last-modified']))
+        self.assertEqual(headers['content-length'], 20)
 
     def test09_allowed_entries(self):
         e = Explorer()

Access token specified to resync-sync is not exposed to resync.Client instances
As @zimeon knows I've been trying to put `resync` through its paces to harvest from the POD data lake, and specifically trying to use `resync-sync` (to provide a readymade solution). While #37 added support for Bearer tokens (as needed by POD), it appears that the `--access-token` parameter doesn't propagate down to the instance of `resync.Client`, namely the [update_resource() method](https://github.com/resync/resync/blob/main/resync/client.py#L507). 

For what it's worth, would it be possible to pass or instantiate the same header configurations from the  `CONFIG` global set in [`resync.url_or_file_open`](https://github.com/resync/resync/blob/main/resync/url_or_file_open.py), to also allow the delay/backoff, and to set the `User-Agent` header? Thanks for considering.

Discovered while looking into ivplus/aggregator#324.
tests/test_explorer.py::TestExplorer::test08_head_on_file
tests/test_explorer.py::TestExplorer::test01_create tests/test_explorer.py::TestExplorer::test01_xresource tests/test_explorer.py::TestExplorer::test03_explorer_quit tests/test_explorer.py::TestExplorer::test04_explore tests/test_explorer.py::TestExplorer::test05_explore_uri tests/test_explorer.py::TestExplorer::test06_explore_show_summary tests/test_explorer.py::TestExplorer::test07_explore_show_head tests/test_explorer.py::TestExplorer::test09_allowed_entries tests/test_explorer.py::TestExplorer::test10_expand_relative_uri