diff --git a/lib/cucumber.rb b/lib/cucumber.rb
index 68a07d498a..33020a4378 100644
--- a/lib/cucumber.rb
+++ b/lib/cucumber.rb
@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 require 'yaml'
+require 'cucumber/encoding'
 require 'cucumber/platform'
 require 'cucumber/runtime'
 require 'cucumber/cli/main'
diff --git a/lib/cucumber/encoding.rb b/lib/cucumber/encoding.rb
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..79e7821f3e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/lib/cucumber/encoding.rb
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+# See https://github.com/cucumber/cucumber/issues/693
+if defined? Encoding
+  Encoding.default_external = 'utf-8'
+  Encoding.default_internal = 'utf-8'
+end
diff --git a/spec/spec_helper.rb b/spec/spec_helper.rb
index 42058d8fac..2c395631e8 100644
--- a/spec/spec_helper.rb
+++ b/spec/spec_helper.rb
@@ -2,10 +2,7 @@
 $:.unshift(File.dirname(__FILE__))
 
 # For Travis....
-if defined? Encoding
-  Encoding.default_external = 'utf-8'
-  Encoding.default_internal = 'utf-8'
-end
+require 'cucumber/encoding'
 
 load File.expand_path(File.dirname(__FILE__) + '/../spec/simplecov_setup.rb')