diff -r e2faa18802bb Lib/test/test_urllib2.py
--- a/Lib/test/test_urllib2.py	Wed Jan 06 03:08:12 2016 +0200
+++ b/Lib/test/test_urllib2.py	Wed Jan 06 03:55:37 2016 +0200
@@ -1350,6 +1350,11 @@ class RequestTests(unittest.TestCase):
         req = Request(url)
         self.assertEqual(req.get_full_url(), url)
 
+    def test_private_attributes(self):
+        self.assertFalse(hasattr(self.get, '_Request__r_xxx'))
+        # Issue #6500: infinite recursion
+        self.assertFalse(hasattr(self.get, '_Request__r_method'))
+
     def test_HTTPError_interface(self):
         """
         Issue 13211 reveals that HTTPError didn't implement the URLError
diff -r e2faa18802bb Lib/urllib2.py
--- a/Lib/urllib2.py	Wed Jan 06 03:08:12 2016 +0200
+++ b/Lib/urllib2.py	Wed Jan 06 03:55:37 2016 +0200
@@ -248,11 +248,10 @@ class Request:
         # methods getting called in a non-standard order.  this may be
         # too complicated and/or unnecessary.
         # XXX should the __r_XXX attributes be public?
-        if attr[:12] == '_Request__r_':
+        if attr in ('_Request__r_type', '_Request__r_host'):
             name = attr[12:]
-            if hasattr(Request, 'get_' + name):
-                getattr(self, 'get_' + name)()
-                return getattr(self, attr)
+            getattr(self, 'get_' + name)()
+            return getattr(self, attr)
         raise AttributeError, attr
 
     def get_method(self):