Originally Posted by Rincewind8
Actually it might fail suddenly. Since you have a rim that is meant for 28 spokes laced only with 14 spokes, you essentially have a weakened rim (or a rim with failure initiators) at the "empty" spoke holes.
Usually, the lower the spoke count for a wheel is, the higher is the tension on each spoke. If you use radial lacing on a hub that's not made for that, you can get hub failures, like:
http://pardo.net/pardo/bike/pic/fail/FAIL-031.html
http://pardo.net/pardo/bike/pic/fail/FAIL-032.html
A rim failure would probably be worse. Search in the Bicycling Mechanic section for rim failure...
I have a few problems with what you say:
How does fewer spokes translate to higher tension? When you measure spoke tension, the only thing that is taken into account is lenth.
How is a rim with empty spoke holes weaker than one without? Since a wheel is a pre-stressed structure, the rim is pulled in on itself; holes do not cause weakening under those conditions, do they?
I would of course agree that fewer spokes = weaker wheel overall since fewer spokes are bearing the load when actually riding it.