diff --git a/src/main/java/org/archive/io/RecordingOutputStream.java b/src/main/java/org/archive/io/RecordingOutputStream.java
index 95e444cc..fe05701c 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/archive/io/RecordingOutputStream.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/archive/io/RecordingOutputStream.java
@@ -21,6 +21,7 @@
 
 import it.unimi.dsi.fastutil.io.FastBufferedOutputStream;
 
+import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
 import java.io.FileOutputStream;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.io.OutputStream;
@@ -89,12 +90,6 @@ public class RecordingOutputStream extends OutputStream {
     /** flag to disable recording */
     private boolean recording;
     
-    /**
-     * Reusable buffer for FastBufferedOutputStream
-     */
-    protected byte[] bufStreamBuf = 
-        new byte [ FastBufferedOutputStream.DEFAULT_BUFFER_SIZE ];
-    
     /**
      * True if we're to digest content.
      */
@@ -206,15 +201,18 @@ public void open(OutputStream wrappedStream) throws IOException {
         }
         clearForReuse();
         this.out = wrappedStream;
+        startTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
+    }
+    
+    protected OutputStream ensureDiskStream() throws FileNotFoundException {
         if (this.diskStream == null) {
-            // TODO: Fix so we only make file when its actually needed.
             FileOutputStream fis = new FileOutputStream(this.backingFilename);
-            
-            this.diskStream = new RecyclingFastBufferedOutputStream(fis, bufStreamBuf);
+            this.diskStream = new FastBufferedOutputStream(fis);
         }
-        startTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
+        return this.diskStream;
     }
 
+
     public void write(int b) throws IOException {
         if(position<maxPosition) {
             // revisiting previous content; do nothing but advance position
@@ -319,10 +317,7 @@ private void record(int b) throws IOException {
             this.digest.update((byte)b);
         }
         if (this.position >= this.buffer.length) {
-            // TODO: Its possible to call write w/o having first opened a
-            // stream.  Protect ourselves against this.
-            assert this.diskStream != null: "Diskstream is null";
-            this.diskStream.write(b);
+            this.ensureDiskStream().write(b);
         } else {
             this.buffer[(int) this.position] = (byte) b;
         }
@@ -357,12 +352,7 @@ private void record(byte[] b, int off, int len) throws IOException {
      */
     private void tailRecord(byte[] b, int off, int len) throws IOException {
         if(this.position >= this.buffer.length){
-            // TODO: Its possible to call write w/o having first opened a
-            // stream.  Lets protect ourselves against this.
-            if (this.diskStream == null) {
-                throw new IOException("diskstream is null");
-            }
-            this.diskStream.write(b, off, len);
+            this.ensureDiskStream().write(b, off, len);
             this.position += len;
         } else {
             assert this.buffer != null: "Buffer is null";
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/archive/io/RecyclingFastBufferedOutputStream.java b/src/main/java/org/archive/io/RecyclingFastBufferedOutputStream.java
deleted file mode 100644
index a3b76e46..00000000
--- a/src/main/java/org/archive/io/RecyclingFastBufferedOutputStream.java
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,37 +0,0 @@
-/*
- *  This file is part of the Heritrix web crawler (crawler.archive.org).
- *
- *  Licensed to the Internet Archive (IA) by one or more individual 
- *  contributors. 
- *
- *  The IA licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0
- *  (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with
- *  the License.  You may obtain a copy of the License at
- *
- *      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
- *
- *  Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
- *  distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
- *  WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
- *  See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
- *  limitations under the License.
- */
-package org.archive.io;
-
-import it.unimi.dsi.fastutil.io.FastBufferedOutputStream;
-
-import java.io.OutputStream;
-
-/** 
- * FastBufferedOutputStream that accepts a passed-in buffer (avoiding 
- * reallocation). 
- */
-public class RecyclingFastBufferedOutputStream extends FastBufferedOutputStream {
-   public RecyclingFastBufferedOutputStream( final OutputStream os, final byte[] buffer ) {
-       super(os);
-       this.buffer = buffer;
-       avail = buffer.length;
-   }
-}
-    
-
diff --git a/src/main/java/org/archive/io/WriterPoolMember.java b/src/main/java/org/archive/io/WriterPoolMember.java
index 6ea6b295..85d44e5d 100644
--- a/src/main/java/org/archive/io/WriterPoolMember.java
+++ b/src/main/java/org/archive/io/WriterPoolMember.java
@@ -19,6 +19,8 @@
 
 package org.archive.io;
 
+import it.unimi.dsi.fastutil.io.FastBufferedOutputStream;
+
 import java.io.File;
 import java.io.FileOutputStream;
 import java.io.IOException;
@@ -80,9 +82,6 @@ public abstract class WriterPoolMember implements ArchiveFileConstants {
     /** Counting stream for metering */
     protected MiserOutputStream countOut = null; 
     
-    /** reusable buffer for recycling scenarios */ 
-    protected byte[] rebuf; 
-    
     protected WriterPoolSettings settings; 
     private final String extension;
 
@@ -209,10 +208,7 @@ protected String createFile(final File file) throws IOException {
     	close();
         this.f = file;
         FileOutputStream fos = new FileOutputStream(this.f);
-        if(rebuf==null) {
-            rebuf = new byte[settings.getWriteBufferSize()]; 
-        }
-        this.countOut = new MiserOutputStream(new RecyclingFastBufferedOutputStream(fos,rebuf),settings.getFrequentFlushes());
+        this.countOut = new MiserOutputStream(new FastBufferedOutputStream(fos),settings.getFrequentFlushes());
         this.out = this.countOut; 
         logger.fine("Opened " + this.f.getAbsolutePath());
         return this.f.getName();