Chris, I wouldn't be so presumptuous as to try to tell you how to deal with your son, but if he doesn't think the front brake is important then he clearly doesn't have enough experience to really complain about the stock fork - not yet. He's probably reading all these forum posts that say things like anything less than a $200 fork is junk. I only point this out because you're going to sink more money into a bike that, when he does have more experience, he's going to decide that the rest of the bike is no longer good enough. Just MHO, please feel free to take it or leave it.