readable's "lowWaterMark" should be filled, even without a .read() call...

gistfile1.js

var Readable = require('stream').Readable;
// node v0.8.x compat
if (!Readable) Readable = require('readable-stream/readable');


var r = new Readable({ lowWaterMark: 1024 });
r._read = function (b, fn) {
  console.error('_read(%d bytes)', b);
};

// this shouldn't even be necessary...
setTimeout(function () { }, 5000);