How do I apply bend to an object and then edit it while it`s bent?

[Brian Jones]

Current State to Object should work but it makes a copy, you’d have to hide the originals

[Sam Treadway]

If you want to keep the bend deformer and edit the mesh while in that bent state, add a correction deformer after the bend deformer and edit with the correction deformer selected…Also, instead of placing the deformers as a child of the mesh object, try placing the mesh object as a child of a null and then stack the deformer above the mesh object as siblings. The order they are stacked in matters. The bend deformer should be above the correction.

[Andrew Stryhaliou]

That worked, thanks.

[Steve Bentley]

You can also use a point morph tag (character menu) on the original unbent object, and use the sculpt tools to edit the original or manually by vertex or the tools in the mesh menu to alter it once its bent and keep the original mesh live and the bend live. And you can animate the point morph, the object and the bend all at the same time.
Make sure to select “tangential” from the Mixing attribute of the tag (really, after all this time there’s still this typo in C4D?) and “post deformers” in the point morph tag so that you are working on the bent shape in position and not the original geometry.