diff --git a/rhodecode/lib/vcs/__init__.py b/rhodecode/lib/vcs/__init__.py
--- a/rhodecode/lib/vcs/__init__.py
+++ b/rhodecode/lib/vcs/__init__.py
@@ -22,18 +22,19 @@
 Various version Control System version lib (vcs) management abstraction layer
 for Python. Build with server client architecture.
 """
+import io
 import atexit
 import logging
-from io import StringIO
 
 import rhodecode
+from rhodecode.lib.str_utils import safe_bytes
 from rhodecode.lib.vcs.conf import settings
 from rhodecode.lib.vcs.backends import get_vcs_instance, get_backend
 from rhodecode.lib.vcs.exceptions import (
     VCSError, RepositoryError, CommitError, VCSCommunicationError)
 
 __all__ = [
-    'get_version', 'get_vcs_instance', 'get_backend',
+    'get_vcs_instance', 'get_backend',
     'VCSError', 'RepositoryError', 'CommitError', 'VCSCommunicationError'
 ]
 
@@ -54,14 +55,9 @@ except ImportError:
     import pycurl
 
 
-def get_version():
-    """
-    Returns shorter version (digit parts only) as string.
-    """
-    return '.'.join((str(each) for each in VERSION[:3]))
+def connect_http(server_and_port):
+    log.debug('Initialized VCSServer connections to %s.', server_and_port)
 
-
-def connect_http(server_and_port):
     from rhodecode.lib.vcs import connection, client_http
     from rhodecode.lib.middleware.utils import scm_app
 
@@ -113,6 +109,7 @@ class CurlSession(object):
     Please have a look at the class :class:`requests.Session` when you extend
     it.
     """
+    CURL_UA = f'RhodeCode HTTP {rhodecode.__version__}'
 
     def __init__(self):
         curl = pycurl.Curl()
@@ -122,7 +119,7 @@ class CurlSession(object):
 
         curl.setopt(curl.TCP_NODELAY, True)
         curl.setopt(curl.PROTOCOLS, curl.PROTO_HTTP)
-        curl.setopt(curl.USERAGENT, 'RhodeCode HTTP {}'.format(rhodecode.__version__))
+        curl.setopt(curl.USERAGENT, safe_bytes(self.CURL_UA))
         curl.setopt(curl.SSL_VERIFYPEER, 0)
         curl.setopt(curl.SSL_VERIFYHOST, 0)
         self._curl = curl
@@ -130,8 +127,8 @@ class CurlSession(object):
     def post(self, url, data, allow_redirects=False, headers=None):
         headers = headers or {}
         # format is ['header_name1: header_value1', 'header_name2: header_value2'])
-        headers_list = ["Expect:"] + ['{}: {}'.format(k, v) for k, v in headers.items()]
-        response_buffer = StringIO()
+        headers_list = [b"Expect:"] + [safe_bytes('{}: {}'.format(k, v)) for k, v in headers.items()]
+        response_buffer = io.BytesIO()
 
         curl = self._curl
         curl.setopt(curl.URL, url)