diff --git a/org.eclipse.jgit.test/tst/org/eclipse/jgit/transport/BundleWriterTest.java b/org.eclipse.jgit.test/tst/org/eclipse/jgit/transport/BundleWriterTest.java
index efc3834f4..24cee0a6a 100644
--- a/org.eclipse.jgit.test/tst/org/eclipse/jgit/transport/BundleWriterTest.java
+++ b/org.eclipse.jgit.test/tst/org/eclipse/jgit/transport/BundleWriterTest.java
@@ -73,20 +73,19 @@ import org.junit.Test;
 public class BundleWriterTest extends SampleDataRepositoryTestCase {
 
 	@Test
-	public void testWrite0() throws Exception {
+	public void testWriteSingleRef() throws Exception {
 		// Create a tiny bundle, (well one of) the first commits only
 		final byte[] bundle = makeBundle("refs/heads/firstcommit",
 				"42e4e7c5e507e113ebbb7801b16b52cf867b7ce1", null);
 
 		// Then we clone a new repo from that bundle and do a simple test. This
-		// makes sure
-		// we could read the bundle we created.
+		// makes sure we could read the bundle we created.
 		Repository newRepo = createBareRepository();
 		FetchResult fetchResult = fetchFromBundle(newRepo, bundle);
 		Ref advertisedRef = fetchResult
 				.getAdvertisedRef("refs/heads/firstcommit");
 
-		// We expect firstcommit to appear by id
+		// We expect first commit to appear by id
 		assertEquals("42e4e7c5e507e113ebbb7801b16b52cf867b7ce1", advertisedRef
 				.getObjectId().name());
 		// ..and by name as the bundle created a new ref
@@ -94,13 +93,21 @@ public class BundleWriterTest extends SampleDataRepositoryTestCase {
 				.resolve("refs/heads/firstcommit").name());
 	}
 
-	/**
-	 * Incremental bundle test
-	 *
-	 * @throws Exception
-	 */
 	@Test
-	public void testWrite1() throws Exception {
+	public void testWriteHEAD() throws Exception {
+		byte[] bundle = makeBundle("HEAD",
+				"42e4e7c5e507e113ebbb7801b16b52cf867b7ce1", null);
+
+		Repository newRepo = createBareRepository();
+		FetchResult fetchResult = fetchFromBundle(newRepo, bundle);
+		Ref advertisedRef = fetchResult.getAdvertisedRef("HEAD");
+
+		assertEquals("42e4e7c5e507e113ebbb7801b16b52cf867b7ce1", advertisedRef
+				.getObjectId().name());
+	}
+
+	@Test
+	public void testIncrementalBundle() throws Exception {
 		byte[] bundle;
 
 		// Create a small bundle, an early commit
diff --git a/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/transport/BundleWriter.java b/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/transport/BundleWriter.java
index 4f5cda7ab..d0f005cde 100644
--- a/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/transport/BundleWriter.java
+++ b/org.eclipse.jgit/src/org/eclipse/jgit/transport/BundleWriter.java
@@ -128,7 +128,8 @@ public class BundleWriter {
 	 *            object to pack. Multiple refs may point to the same object.
 	 */
 	public void include(final String name, final AnyObjectId id) {
-		if (!Repository.isValidRefName(name))
+		boolean validRefName = Repository.isValidRefName(name) || Constants.HEAD.equals(name);
+		if (!validRefName)
 			throw new IllegalArgumentException(MessageFormat.format(JGitText.get().invalidRefName, name));
 		if (include.containsKey(name))
 			throw new IllegalStateException(JGitText.get().duplicateRef + name);