diff --git a/lib/irc.js b/lib/irc.js
index bd5dc38e..2cc59b59 100644
--- a/lib/irc.js
+++ b/lib/irc.js
@@ -960,6 +960,7 @@ Client.prototype.action = function(channel, text) {
 };
 
 Client.prototype._splitLongLines = function(words, maxLength, destination) {
+    maxLength = maxLength || 450; // If maxLength hasn't been initialized yet, prefer an arbitrarily low line length over crashing.
     if (words.length == 0) {
         return destination;
     }
diff --git a/test/data/fixtures.json b/test/data/fixtures.json
index 00833469..a15cce92 100644
--- a/test/data/fixtures.json
+++ b/test/data/fixtures.json
@@ -177,5 +177,11 @@
             "maxLength": 5,
             "result": ["abc", "abcde", "f abc", "abcd", "abc"]
         }
-    ]
+    ],
+	"_splitLongLines_no_max": [
+		{
+			"input": "abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz",
+			"result": ["abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz"]
+		}
+	]
 }
diff --git a/test/test-irc.js b/test/test-irc.js
index c9b27e9e..6a315a54 100644
--- a/test/test-irc.js
+++ b/test/test-irc.js
@@ -84,3 +84,23 @@ test ('splitting of long lines', function(t) {
     });
     mock.close();
 });
+
+test ('splitting of long lines with no maxLength defined.', function(t) {
+    var port = 6667;
+    var mock = testHelpers.MockIrcd(port, 'utf-8', false);
+    var client = new irc.Client('localhost', 'testbot', {
+        secure: false,
+        selfSigned: true,
+        port: port,
+        retryCount: 0,
+        debug: true
+    });
+
+    var group = testHelpers.getFixtures('_splitLongLines_no_max');
+    console.log(group.length);
+    t.plan(group.length);
+    group.forEach(function(item) {
+        t.deepEqual(client._splitLongLines(item.input, null, []), item.result);
+    });
+    mock.close();
+});
\ No newline at end of file