HTTP request stream not readable outside of request handler

I'm writing a fairly complicated multi-node proxy, and at one point I need to handle an HTTP request, but read from that request outside of the "http.Server" callback (I need to read from the request data and line it up with a different response at a different time). The problem is, the stream is no longer readable. Below is some simple code to reproduce the issue. Is this normal, or a bug?

function startServer() {
    http.Server(function (req, res) {
        req.pause();

        checkRequestReadable(req);

        setTimeout(function() {
        checkRequestReadable(req);
        }, 1000);

        setTimeout(function() {
        res.end();
        }, 1100);
    }).listen(1337);
    console.log('Server running on port 1337');
}

function checkRequestReadable(req) {
    //The request is not readable here!
    console.log('Request writable? ' + req.readable);
}

startServer();