Recent advances in the manufacturing of multifilamentary high temperature superconducting composite wires allow for wider practical applications of the conductors, e. g. in power transmission cables, transformers and motors. The wires, based mainly on BSCCO-2223 and YBCO-123 cuprates, are used in the forms of variously shaped coils; therefore they are subjected to different kinds of mechanical stresses and strains. These, in turn, lead to some changes in the physical parameters of the superconducting material, mainly in the critical current density, and thus in the dissipated electromagnetic energy, when subjected to changing magnetic fields and transport currents. In this work we report some experimental results related to the AC loss characteristics of Bi-2223/Ag multifilamentary tapes and their dependences on bending strains. These losses are compared to the losses of virgin, straight tapes. The total AC losses, i.e. transport current and magnetization losses, in the Bi-2223/Ag tapes, were measured by means of the electrical and calorimetric methods. The experimental data obtained are compared with the critical state model predictions for AC loss behaviour in the experimental conditions presented here.