diff --git a/clientapi/routing/rate_limiting.go b/clientapi/routing/rate_limiting.go
index 16e3c0565..9d3f817a2 100644
--- a/clientapi/routing/rate_limiting.go
+++ b/clientapi/routing/rate_limiting.go
@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ import (
 type rateLimits struct {
 	limits           map[string]chan struct{}
 	limitsMutex      sync.RWMutex
+	cleanMutex       sync.RWMutex
 	enabled          bool
 	requestThreshold int64
 	cooloffDuration  time.Duration
@@ -38,6 +39,7 @@ func (l *rateLimits) clean() {
 		// empty. If they are then we will close and delete them,
 		// freeing up memory.
 		time.Sleep(time.Second * 30)
+		l.cleanMutex.Lock()
 		l.limitsMutex.Lock()
 		for k, c := range l.limits {
 			if len(c) == 0 {
@@ -46,6 +48,7 @@ func (l *rateLimits) clean() {
 			}
 		}
 		l.limitsMutex.Unlock()
+		l.cleanMutex.Unlock()
 	}
 }
 
@@ -55,12 +58,12 @@ func (l *rateLimits) rateLimit(req *http.Request) *util.JSONResponse {
 		return nil
 	}
 
-	// Lock the map long enough to check for rate limiting. We hold it
-	// for longer here than we really need to but it makes sure that we
-	// also don't conflict with the cleaner goroutine which might clean
-	// up a channel after we have retrieved it otherwise.
-	l.limitsMutex.RLock()
-	defer l.limitsMutex.RUnlock()
+	// Take a read lock out on the cleaner mutex. The cleaner expects to
+	// be able to take a write lock, which isn't possible while there are
+	// readers, so this has the effect of blocking the cleaner goroutine
+	// from doing its work until there are no requests in flight.
+	l.cleanMutex.RLock()
+	defer l.cleanMutex.RUnlock()
 
 	// First of all, work out if X-Forwarded-For was sent to us. If not
 	// then we'll just use the IP address of the caller.
@@ -69,12 +72,19 @@ func (l *rateLimits) rateLimit(req *http.Request) *util.JSONResponse {
 		caller = forwardedFor
 	}
 
-	// Look up the caller's channel, if they have one. If they don't then
-	// let's create one.
+	// Look up the caller's channel, if they have one.
+	l.limitsMutex.RLock()
 	rateLimit, ok := l.limits[caller]
+	l.limitsMutex.RUnlock()
+
+	// If the caller doesn't have a channel, create one and write it
+	// back to the map.
 	if !ok {
-		l.limits[caller] = make(chan struct{}, l.requestThreshold)
-		rateLimit = l.limits[caller]
+		rateLimit = make(chan struct{}, l.requestThreshold)
+
+		l.limitsMutex.Lock()
+		l.limits[caller] = rateLimit
+		l.limitsMutex.Unlock()
 	}
 
 	// Check if the user has got free resource slots for this request.