A disk drive flexure (115') includes both a support layer (116) and an electrical insulator layer (122). A flex cable (101') is disposed on the electrical insulator layer (122), and includes a plurality of slider bond pads (106'). The support layer (116) includes a bond pad support (119) for each slider bond pad (106'). Each bond pad support (119) is aligned with only a portion of its corresponding slider bond pad (106'), such that it supports less than an entirety of its corresponding slider bond pad (106').