Contributions from bending to the evaluated axial strain in an elastic rod are commonly suppressed by forming half the sum of measured surface strains at diametrically opposite positions. A simple method is presented which gives a useful estimation of the bending suppression (the ratio of the bending strain to the absolute value of the evaluated axial strain when a rod is subject to bending only) from (i) optically measured mis-positioning and (ii) estimated differences between the gauge constants for the two strain gauges. Good agreement is obtained with results obtained from strain measurements on a rod loaded in bending